It’s nearly a year since Chen Shui Bian was shot (March 19th 2004, the day before the election), and most people have given up on the case ever being solved. However, there was a press conference today, where a prime suspect was finally announced.

Investigators said Monday they’ve identified the “most likely suspect” who fired a shot that slightly injured Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian one day before he was narrowly re-elected last March.

But the suspect, Chen Yi-hsiung, drowned shortly after the March 19 shooting and police thought it was a suicide because the man prepared a will just before his death, said Hou You-yi, head of the Criminal Investigation.

There are two possible takes on this:

• Case closed. They’ve got video evidence that puts him at the scene, links to the gun used, motive, and an admission by his wife. It’ll take a bit of tidying up, but they’ve finally solved it
• A suspect who is dead? Still not found the gun? A dodgy video of someone who might be him at the scene? Very convenient fall guy.

In a normal country, you’d expect things to clarify as all the evidence gets digested and explained – and for one of these positions to become the norm. However, in Taiwan, where people don’t let evidence cloud their judgement too much you can bet that those who always thought it was a fake will continue to believe that, and vice versa.

I suspect that the bit which will excite the Taiwanese media will be this bit:

Hou said that the suspect’s wife confessed to her that he shot the president. Hou told reporters the woman said her husband was quiet for several days after the shooting. After she saw the TV footage of her husband at the scene, she asked him if he did it, Hou said.

“He said, ‘I did it and I will handle it myself,”‘ Hou said quoting the suspect’s wife.

There’s nothing a Taiwanese reporter likes more than harassing a weeping wife/mother. I think she’s about to be very famous here – whether she likes it or not.