Speaking to reporters at the DPP headquarters, Tsai stated that "Taiwan is a democratic country and should have dealt with a case involving a former president with objective judicial processes and clear standards of political integrity and exclude without political bias."

"However, in the first trial we witnessed numerous violations of judicial procedural justice," including the special appointment of a judge instead of selection by random and the "unnecessary detention" of the former president, said the DPP chairwoman, who said that "after such a flawed process, such a heavy sentence will inevitably spark doubts among the people."

Tsai expressed regret that over the "double standard" shown by Taipei District Court Judge Tsai Shou-hsun, who found President Ma Ying-jeou innocent of embezzling NT$20 million in mayoral special funds, but imposed a life sentence on the former president and said that such diametrically different judgements in similar cases "will be difficult for society to accept."

Tsai said her party "demanded that the errors and flaws of the first trial should be monitored and corrected in the second trial" in the Taiwan High Court and called for the selection of the judges and the appeal processes to be conducted in an "transparent and open process and under the monitoring of society."

The DPP chairwoman also called for the release of the former president, who has been under detention for nearly 290 days, in the wake of the first court's judgement.

Tsai also called on society to focus attention on the questions raised by the flaws in the trial process about the judicial system and the preventative detention system, which "gravely violates human rights" and called on the ruling Kuomintang, which has an absolute legislative majority, to immediately revise the Code of Criminal Procedures and the Law on Judges to eliminate the human rights violations in the detention system and weed out "unsuitable judges."

Tsai also called on President Ma Ying-jeou, who will soon become KMT chairman, to refrain from attempting to "exploit" the judgement and "exacerbate social antagonisms" in an attempt to divert attention from "incompetent government."

In addition, Tsai stated that "former president Chen's remittance of funds overseas and confusion of public and private interests violated the DPP's statute on political integrity" and said the DPP believes that Chen must bear "political responsibility" for these actions and failing to exercise restraint on the members of his family.

Speaking with reporters at "Former Presidnet Chen Shui-bian's Office" in Taipei, former Chen defense lawyer Cheng Wen-lung issued a four-point statement that decried the judgement as "an unconstitutional, illegal and invalid judgement" that "gravely set back Taiwan's judicial independence and credibility," "

Cheng stated that from the time when Taipei District Court Judge Tsai Shou-hsun was appointed to handle the Chen case instead of a randomly selected judge, the proceedings were violated constitutional procedures.

"In Taiwan's history, we have never seen a case in which a judge has been changed in such an important case," observed Cheng, who said that Tsai Shou-hsun had committed numerous violations of judicial procedures and principles, including the injunction of the criminal procedures law that judgements of guilt cannot be made without concrete evidence.

Cheng stressed that the announcement of the verdict by the Taipei District Court offered no concrete evidence of Chen's guilt.

Cheng stated that the verdict was a "political judgement" that permitted the KMT to possess "hundreds of billions of New Taiwan dollars in party assets but transformed all of DPP political funds into corruption and bribes" in order to intimidate anyone who would contribute to the DPP."