Roh Moo-hyun /章曙彤(Cecilia Chang)

章曙彤攀梯上吊人死案結- 因涉嫌貪污欺詐、強迫奴役學生和行賄等多項罪名的聖若望大學(St. John's University)前副校長暨亞洲研究中心院長 ...

美大學傳奇華裔院長受審後自殺

MOSI SECRET,  WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM 聯合報道 2012年11月08日

若不是因為她的倒台，她此前扶搖直上的學術生涯本可以算是美國夢的縮影。1975年，她 剛剛從台灣來到美國，就讀於聖約翰大學(St. John’s University)的亞洲研究專業。但她在五年時間後就成為學院院長，隨後很快又為學校籌款逾2000萬美元（約合1.2億元人民幣），從而贏得了大 學高層的重視。
但對章曙彤(Cecilia Chang)院長來說，同樣的野心和慾望，既是她奮鬥的動力，也是斷送了她的原因。在布魯克林聯邦地區法院(Federal District Court)為期三周的審判中，她被指控挪用學校資金逾100萬美元，並役使獲得獎學金的外國留學生做她的私仆。

按圖放大

Uli Seit for The New York Times

章曙彤

就在章曙彤出庭，百般自辯之後幾個小時，她被發現死在了自己皇后區的百萬豪宅中，這所豪宅也是她青雲直上獲得的戰利品之一。調查人員認為她死於自殺。
章曙彤的律師周二曾試圖和她取得聯繫。由於聯繫未果，律師打通了她兒子的電話，並建議他報警。警方在接到報警後進入章曙彤的住所，發現她已經死亡。
這一切都始於2010年，章曙彤被逮捕並被起訴。檢察官指出，她曾利用職位之便為學校招生，並向學生做出獎學金承諾，但後又威脅學生，如果他們不為她做家務，她就把他們開除。這些家務活包括手洗她的內衣。
檢察官還指出，她用學生的名字開設銀行賬戶，並在不同賬戶間轉移了數萬美元，這些錢最終落入她的腰包。
政府掌握了此案的有力證據，以至於章曙彤的律師在開庭陳述時幾乎無法做出辯護。她的律師說，她拿了那些錢，但那是欠她的錢。學生確實為她做家務，但並不是被迫的。
學生和校方在檢察官的傳喚下出庭作證，提供了大量足以定罪的證據。章曙彤不顧律師的建議，出庭為自己辯護。她的證詞是她死之前唯一的辯護證詞。該案的主審法官小斯特林·約翰遜(Sterling Johnson Jr.)在她被確認死亡後宣布審判無效。
此案提醒我們，法庭上的審判通常只是人間戲劇的縮略。法庭往往是一個文明有序的場所，陪審員在法庭上聆聽過去發生的案情。但在金屬探測器和安保人員之外，真實生活可能更加可怕。
這種反差是驚人的。章曙彤的辯護律師對自己客戶的尖刻態度眾所周知。周二的時候，所有人都試圖搞清楚案情進展的時候，他們一度在庭上笑起來。
他們後來發表了一份聲明。
聲明中說，“章曙彤為聖約翰大學奉獻了30年的生命。她是一名成就頗豐的籌款人，不知疲倦地支持她鍾愛的聖約翰亞洲研究課程。她今天的去世，給一出曲折的人間戲劇畫上了一個悲傷的結尾。”
大學發言人多米尼克·希安納(Dominic Scianna)說，“聖約翰大學今早得知章曙彤的死訊，不勝悲痛。我們希望全體聖約翰人為她和她的家人祈禱。”
與此同時，以風格輕鬆活潑著稱的案件主審法官小斯特林·約翰遜聽到被告的死訊，卻並沒有收斂一貫的作風。
“Sayonara，(日語意為“再見”)，”約翰遜法官說。他補充說，章曙彤在前一天的證言中說出了壓在心中的所有的話。“我們永遠不知道一個人是怎樣面對壓力的。”他還將事情的轉折稱為一樁“莎士比亞式的悲劇”。
公訴人一度互相擁抱，還擁抱了搜集證據的探員。
案情在法庭上展開的同時，章曙彤的兒子史蒂文(Steven)被警察擋在了母親家門外。法庭證言中，母親的學生為他做的家務活成為一大話題。
至於史蒂文是否已經看過了母親的屍體，法庭正在等警方的消息。史蒂文是否看過了屍體？警察說，他們給鄰居出示了一張章曙彤的照片，鄰居確認那就是她。法官接受了她是自殺的結論。
法官沒有立即告知陪審團發生的事情，死訊確認前一直讓他們待在一個單獨的房間里。根據當時在場的幾個陪審員的說法，法官私下裡告訴了陪審員，“章博士已經不在了”。
所有人都說消息太令人震驚了。
要求隱瞞姓氏的納蘇縣(Nassau)陪審員弗蘭克(Frank)說，“我的第一反應是她逃出國了。”
來自斯塔滕島的瓊·博菲(Joan Bophy)說，“我們震驚了。很遺憾。本來可能沒有人會對她判得那麼重。”
他們回憶了她前一天的證詞，尋找可能預示了後來發生的事的跡象。一些人稱，她看起來不對勁，她在前一天的證言中似乎承認自己涉案，這讓他們覺得奇怪。
博菲說，“你可以看到她有壓力，非常有壓力。她讓自己越陷越深。”

翻譯：陶夢縈、黃錚

-----

Former S. Korean President Roh Dies in Apparent Suicide

盧武鉉自殺: 聲援翁山蘇姬

By Blaine Harden and Stella Kim

Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, May 23, 2009; 3:38 AM

TOKYO, May 23 -- Former South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun, a suspect in a corruption scandal that implicated his wife and family, apparently committed suicide Saturday by leaping from a mountain cliff near his rural home.
Roh, 62, died of head injuries while hiking in the early morning with a bodyguard. "He appears to have jumped from a mountain rock," said Moon Jae-in, a lawyer who was Roh's presidential chief of staff.
"The suffering caused by me is too great to too many people," Roh wrote in a suicide note found soon after his death. "The suffering in store for the future is too much to bear. The remainder of my life will only be a burden to others."
Roh, who left office last year after a five-year term, was questioned for nearly 13 hours late last month by prosecutors. They were investigating allegations that during his presidency he and members of his family accepted more than $6 million in bribes from a wealthy South Korean shoe manufacturer.
At the time of the questioning, Roh did not admit personal wrongdoing but apologized to the country for his family's involvement in the scandal. Prosecutors are looking into a $1.6 million payment to his wife and a $5 million payment to the husband of one Roh's nieces.
"I am sorry for disappointing you," he told reporters. "I have no face to show to the people."
Shortly after Roh's death, the South Korean minister of justice, Kim Kyung-han, announced that "the ongoing investigation regarding the former president Roh will end."
South Korean news reports said that in the three days before his death, Roh missed meals and spent hours alone in the study of his house in rural Bonghwa Village, about 270 miles south of Seoul.
-->
He had started smoking again and had seemed agitated that his wife had again been called by prosecutors to come to their office, Roh's aides told news outlets. He was also said to be upset that his son, daughter and son-in-law were facing interrogation.
The 164-foot precipice that Roh jumped from, known as Owl Rock, is less than 200 yards from his home.
The bodyguard who accompanied Roh on Saturday's mountain hike, was distracted by the former president, when Roh pointed to people walking down below, according to a spokesman in the office of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.
When the bodyguard turned back to look at Roh, the former president had jumped, the spokesman said.

From a poor farming family, Roh rose to power as a champion of students and left-leaning citizens who hated the military dictatorships that ruled in the 1980s and wanted a more equitable distribution of wealth and economic opportunity in South Korea.
Roh was also an acerbic critic of the United States and the powerful role it has played since the Korean War in shaping South Korean policy. In his 2002 election campaign, he promised never to "kowtow" to the Americans.
In a country that pays obsessive attention to educational credentials, he did not have prestigious degrees and was notably unpolished. He attended a commercial high school, never received a college diploma and there were many who said he did not speak proper Korean.
But he passed the bar exam and made his name defending students who protested military rule.
During his presidency, Roh steadfastly pursued a generous and non-confrontational policy toward North Korea, the heavily armed and prickly communist state on his country's northern border.
Continuing the "sunshine policy" of his predecessor, President Kim Dae-jung, Roh traveled in 2007 to Pyongyang for a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.
Critics said Roh's government ignored human rights abuses in North Korea and helped prop up its collapsed centralized economy with gifts of food and fertilizer. Under Roh, South Korea rarely asked questions about whether its aid went to hungry people or to the military and ruling elite.
In the last years of his presidency, however, it was primarily a sluggish economy in South Korea that soured Roh's approval numbers. A majority of voters wanted faster growth, polls showed, and were indifferent to his peaceful embrace of North Korea.

******

（中央社台北23日電）弊案纏身的南韓第16任總統盧武鉉，過去以「農 民之子」、「人權律師」等清新號召入主青瓦台，但下台後爆出一連串貪汙醜聞，他今天選擇以墜崖謝幕。以下是盧家貪污受賄內情：

●2006年9月，盧武鉉於總統任內慶渡60大壽，收取了 朴淵次贈送的兩隻價格逾兩億韓元的瑞士伯爵牌鑲鑽 名錶。盧武鉉4月30日接受檢訊時堅稱，「已把它扔 進稻田」。消息經披露後，造成峰下村稻田的「尋寶 熱」。
●2009年4月30 日，盧武鉉於因涉嫌接受商人朴淵次提 供的100萬美元賄款而接受首爾大檢察廳調查，雖然 事前他已在網站上認錯道歉，但在檢方審問中他行使 嫌疑人的緘默權，並未認罪。檢方表示，他們已握有 證據顯示，盧武鉉任內，總統府透過國家情報院不受 金融監督的「特殊管道」，將賄款中40萬美元匯給在 美國留學的兒子盧建昊和女兒盧靜妍。
●盧靜妍在美國新澤西州的豪華公寓 園區「哈德遜俱樂 部」，訂購了一座價值160萬美元的豪宅，附設有溫 泉泳池和大型健身室、20個座位的小影院、設有球桌 的休閒間、室內籃球場以及寵物狗鄉間俱樂部。盧靜 妍於事發後，將已付45萬美元訂金的豪宅契約書撕毀 ，但檢調當局已取得影本。
●2009 年5月14日，首爾中央地方法院刑事合議第22部 宣判，盧武鉉胞兄盧建平處以有期徒刑4年，並追繳5 億7000萬韓元的贓款。他因向「世宗證券」收受數十 億韓元的關說賄賂，並委託前任農業協同組合中央會 會長鄭大根收購「世宗證券」而遭定罪。980523

周六早上傳出死訊的盧武鉉，6年前以56歲之齡上台出任南韓總統。由於他比過往歷任總統相對地年輕，加上他出身寒微、進行競選時豪情壯語揚言要根除貪污風 氣，人民都對他寄以厚望，盼望他為國家帶來清廉的新景象。但在位五年間，他有如坐過山車一樣，聲望大上大落，最終因為捲入收受企業家賄款醜聞，而成為一位 備受爭議的人物。雖然掌握大權，但盧武鉉無法避免自己被捲入政治旋渦。他領導的「開放的我們黨」（UriParty）爆發一連串醜聞和內鬥，政府施行的多 項政策又受到反對黨派激烈反對，令到盧武鉉的形象大受打擊，聲望低落。
盧武鉉於0946年8月6日在慶尚南道金海市一個農民家庭出生，青年時期在釜山商業 高等學校接受教育，1966年畢業後加入軍隊服役，77年出任大田市地方法院法官，78年成為人權律師。盧武鉉曾經為十多名被控收藏違禁文學作品而扣留、 被虐待近兩個月的學生，擔任辯護律師。1987年，反對黨派發動反對全斗煥獨裁統治的「六月鬥爭」運動，盧武鉉是其中一位領袖。他在抗爭行動中被警方拘 捕，被控以教唆工人罷工的罪名及被法庭判處入獄三個星期，但這番經歷沒有打沉他的意志。大規模的群眾抗議活動成功迫使全斗煥下台。翌年，即1988年，盧 武鉉當選成為國會議員，正式投身政界。當年，南韓國會成立特別委員會調查官員貪污案，盧武鉉以凌厲的詞鋒詰問官員，成為報章的頭條新聞。
2002年7月， 他獲推舉成為南韓新千禧民主黨總統候選人，在同年12月舉行的大選中勝出，03年2月底宣誓就職。在任期間，他先後於03年和06年到中國進行國事訪問。 04年初，盧武鉉被揭發違反了一條選舉法，國會表決通過對他提出彈劾，盧武鉉被迫離職兩個月，但憲制法庭其後推翻國會的行動，讓盧武鉉復職，但那場風波已 令盧武鉉飽受羞辱。
盧武鉉遺下妻子權良淑和一子一女。