The family of Chen Yi-hsiung, who the Taiwanese police have identified as trying to assassinate the Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian on the eve of the national elections in 2004, withdrew their confession on Sunday.

Chen Yi-hsiung's wife and three children held a press conference to announce that they had never said the person in a picture of an unidentified suspect publicized by the police was Chen Yi-hsiung.

The family said their testimony was made under police pressure and inducement, adding that they knew nothing about the law at that time.

The family denied that Chen Yi-hsiung, who drowned himself days after the shooting, had admitted that he shot Chen Shui-bian. They also claim that they had never admitted knowing about Chen's involvement in the case.

According to a statement publicized at the press conference, the family had lunch with Chen Yi-hsiung on March 19, the day that the shooting occurred. The procurator and the police, however, had deliberately ignored that fact, it said.

Li Shu-jiang, Chen Yi-hsiung's wife, had to speak according to a draft prescribed by the police during the interrogation under police pressure, the statement said.

The family demanded the police to publicize the video and records of the investigation and interrogation so as to seek fair judgement from the general public.

Hou Yu-ih, the man in charge of the probe, denied the family's accusation at a press conference, and said he understood the family's mood, but the March 19 shooting incident had been resolved and the committee set up to look into the case had been dismissed.

Hou suggested that a new task force of public credibility should continue the investigation if new evidence emerged.

Chen Shui-bian was shot in the abdomen and his running mate, Annette Lu Hsiu-lien, was hit in the knee as they campaigned in Tainan on March 19, 2004.

A committee established to investigate the incident concluded the case in August 2005 by identifying Chen Yi-hsiung as the would-be assassin.

Source: Xinhua