Former president Chen Shui-bian’s application for a passport was “old news” and Taiwan’s judicial system would be proven unjust if it abused its power and extended his detention by raking up old news as new evidence, Chen’s office said yesterday.

On Wednesday, former Presidential Office secretary Chen Hsin-yi testified in court that Chen Shui-bian had told her to file an application for a passport for him “most urgently” soon after he stepped down last July. Chen Hsin-yi added that then-first lady Wu Shu-jen told her to pay for the application fees for passports for the then-first family using the “state affairs fund.”

Former president Chen Shui-bian’s court-appointed attorney yesterday said the former president was hoping for a speedy response from the Council of Grand Justices to a request for a constitutional interpretation on the transfer of his case to Presiding Judge Tsai Shou-hsun.

Speaking to reporters during a recess in the former president’s trial, Tseng Te-rong said Chen had expressed concern about when the Council of Grand Justices would hand down its decision on whether switching judges in his case was constitutional.

Former president Chen Shui-bian yesterday maintained his silence during his trial for corruption, but expressed his anger through a spokesperson about his son and daughter being named as defendants in a related perjury case.

Yesterday was the first day of a week of consecutive full-day court appearances for the former president. Hundreds of his supporters again gathered outside the Taipei District Court to show their dissatisfaction with the judicial process.