Taiwan prosecutors on Tuesday questioned the island's former leader Chen Shui-bian for the second time for his alleged role in a special government fund embezzlement case.

Accompanied by his three lawyers, Chen came to the prosecutor's office at around 2:30 p.m. and spent about four hours there.

Tuesday's questioning came after Taiwan authority on August 6 declassified the documents relating to Chen's use of special expenses, saying they contained no secrets.

Local prosecutors conducted the first questioning on July 24 when their questions were only confined to the content of the indictment because Chen had classified relevant documents.

Chen, who just ended his tenure as Taiwan leader in May, was suspected of corruption and forging documents in 2006 but was immune from prosecution because he was Taiwan leader.

Local prosecutors, however, attempted to sue his wife Wu Shu-chen for pocketing 14.8 million New Taiwan dollars (448,500 U.S. dollars) in public money and being suspected of embezzlement and forging documents.

It was said that when Chen served as Taiwan leader, he had 48 million New Taiwan dollars of the so-called "confidential fund" each year.

(Xinhua News Agency August 12, 2008)