TAIPEI, Taiwan - The wheelchair-bound former first lady Wu Shu-chen yesterday reproached prosecutors for freezing her family's assets, claiming she has been left with only a small sum that can only cover two months of her huge medical expenses. Wu said that prosecutors have only left about NT$500,000 (S$8,600) for the family, but her medical expenses amount to over NT$200,000 a month.

"I had better kill myself," an angry Wu told the High Court hearing her appeal against her life sentence for corruption. She also criticized the prosecutors for freezing the assets without giving them prior notice.

The prosecutors' Special Investigation Unit (SIU) on Wednesday revealed that it had frozen the Chen family's assets in Taiwan totaling NT$500 million. The SIU said another NT$50 million was still available for the family's living expenses.

"The prosecutors added two extra zeros," said Wu in reference to the unfrozen sum. She said she now has only NT$400,000 in her bank account, and there is about NT$100,000 available in her son Chen Chih-chung's bank account. She said she did not know that their assets had been frozen until Chih-chung tried to withdraw money from his account to pay for a second-hand car.

"We're left with no living expenses. The court might as well sentence me to death or put me in jail," she told reporters later. "I might as well become a robber, after all I've been sentenced to life."

Wu and her husband, former President Chen Shui-bian, were sentenced to life in prison by the Taipei District Court for corruption. They are appealing.

Chen has been in custody since last December, but Wu's poor health has prevented her from being detained. Wu has not employed her own lawyer for the appellate trial. The High Court has assigned her an attorney who will battle a total of six prosecutors.

The newly assigned attorney has been slow in digesting the piles of documents related to the case, and the court is considering assigning more attorneys to help the defense side.