Taiwan court upholds Ma's innocent verdict

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan's Supreme Court on Thursday found President-elect Ma Ying-jeou innocent of corruption, upholding two lower court verdicts and clearing his name for the final weeks ahead of his inauguration.

The island's highest court said Ma had neither collected illegal income nor tried to break the law.

"Why would we reject the appeal against Mr Ma?" court spokesman Chang Chun-tsung told a news conference. "Objectively, he showed no intent to do anything illegal."

Prosecutors had accused Ma of misusing T$11.176 million ($369,000) while serving as Taipei mayor from 1998 to 2006. He was charged with diverting the money from a discretionary fund into his personal account every month over about five years.

Taiwan prosecutors have charged a number of other political figures, including the first lady and the vice president, with graft involving special government funds.

The initial charges in February 2007 prompted Ma to resign as chairman of Taiwan's main opposition Nationalist Party (KMT), but he denied any wrongdoing and was nominated as the KMT's presidential candidate.

A district court cleared Ma in August and the high court cleared him in December.

Ma won the presidential election by a landslide on March 22 following a campaign focused on improving trade ties with China under a bigger economic stimulus plan.

Ma takes office on May 20.