Former Taiwan leader faces charges
Prosecutors indicted former Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian on corruption charges after holding him in custody for a month to investigate money laundering and other allegations against him.
Indicted together with Chen were his wife Wu Shu-chen, his son and daughter-in-law, three former aides in the presidential office, and eight other associates and family members.
Chen, 57, has denied the accusations, saying he is being persecuted by President Ma Ying-jeou's new government for having taken a strong anti-China stance during his presidency, which ended seven months ago.
Ma's office said it would not comment on the indictments.
Prosecutorial spokesman Chen Yun-nan said Chen Shui-bian and Wu together embezzled 104 million New Taiwan dollars (£2m) from a special presidential fund and received bribes in connection with a government land deal.
He said Wu separately received another bribe in connection with a government construction project.
"Chen Shui-bian undermined justice again and again and showed no regret," Chen Yun-nan said. He asked the judges to give the defendants "the most severe sentence."
The former president has been held in a suburban Taipei jail since November 12 during a prosecutorial probe into allegations he engaged in money laundering and other corruption offences during his eight years in office.
Chen, who ended a 50-year monopoly on power by Ma's Nationalist Party in 2000, was first elected on promises he would end government corruption.
A former head of the Ministry of Justice's Bureau of Investigation - Taiwan's FBI - was sentenced to 10 years in prison earlier this month after being found guilty of concealing information on Chen's financial activities from judicial authorities.