TAIPEI, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Taiwan prosecutors detained a vice economics minister on Wednesday for questioning about suspected diversion of public funds, the latest scandal to shake President Chen Shui-bian's administration.
Hou Ho-Shong, deputy minister at the Ministry of Economic Affairs, was detained in central Taiwan on suspicion of diverting money from seven public projects, mostly involving irrigation, a spokesman for the prosecutor's office said.
Hou has not been charged but he was suspended from his job pending the outcome of the investigation, said Su Hui-chun, the ministry's department of the secretariat section chief.
Several of President Chen's family members and aides have been charged with a series of white-collar crimes over the past two years. Chen was elected in 2000 on a clean government platform and re-elected for a second and final term in 2004.
Taipei District Court is scheduled to deliver its verdict on Ma Ying-jeou, the standard-bearer of the island's main opposition Nationalist Party who is charged with corruption, on Aug. 14.
Ma has pleaded not guilty to charges he misappropriated T$11 million (US$335,000) from a special fund over five years during his tenure as mayor of Taipei from 1998 to 2006.
