The China Post news staff
"There's going to be a PK between Chen and I," the expose expert told his supporters who rallied before the front gate of Kaohsiung's Prison Two to welcome him back.
By PK, Chiu meant penalty kick. He predicted a showdown with Chen akin to a soccer striker and goaltender, lined up opposite one another to break the tie at the end of a soccer game.
"But not right away," said Chiu, who lost at least 10 kilograms of weight in the 208 days he had stayed behind bars.
He started serving a 14-month sentence last April 26 for leading a raid into the Kaohsiung district court on March 20, 2004, to protest "an unfair presidential election."
Chen was elected with a paper-thin margin of 0.2 percent, thanks to sympathy votes cast following a mysterious shooting incident, in which he was slightly injured.
Chiu claimed he was forced to go to jail for exposing a scandal involving first lady Wu Shu-chen. She is standing trial for corruption, charged with borrowing invoices and receipts from friends and relatives to claim a NT$14.8 million reimbursement from a public fund under her husband's control for the conduct of "affairs of state."
President Chen was not indicted, for he enjoys immunity from prosecution, but was regarded as an unindicted co-defendant, who will be formally charged on leaving office.
But it was Chen who proclaimed a amnesty earlier this year, halving the time Chiu was sentenced to serve.
Police deployed more than 100 guards to keep order near the prison. They were afraid a riot might break out.
From the prison Chiu proceeded to the Kaohsiung railroad station to take a bullet train back to Taipei.
Aboard the train, Chiu received telephone messages of congratulation from Ma Ying-jeou, Kuomintang presidential candidate, and Wu Po-hsiung, Kuomintang chairman.
James Soong, chairman of the People First Party, also congratulated Chiu on the occasion. Chiu used to be a PFP member.
For his revelations of the scandal involving the first family Chiu was placed high on a Kuomintang list of candidates, from among whom lawmakers at large will be elected on Jan. 12 next year.
His return to the Legislative Yuan is assured.
Asked about his life in prison, Chiu said he wasn't too lonely.
"Many friends came to see me," Chiu said. Moreover, a fan wrote him a letter a day.
She identified herself as Hsu Mei-lien. "It's a good name," Chiu said. Mei-lien means "Beautiful Lotus."
"I want to know whether she was a girl I saw on a Kaohsiung riverbank protesting against President Chen during the Redshirts movement," the lawmaker said.
Shih Ming-teh, a former Democratic Progressive Party chairman, led a March of One Million last year to demand that President Chen step down.
Supporters all wore red shirts, branding the unsuccessful campaign to topple the president.