Taipei - Taiwan's prosecutors Friday indicted the daughter of former president Chen Shui-bian on charges of perjury over graft allegations against her father, a spokesman said.

Chen Hsin-yu was accused of making false statements in an attempt to cover up for the ex-president, Lin Chin-tsun, spokesman of the Taipei District Prosecutors Office, said.

"Her testimonies about the state fund case were inconsistent," Lin said, referring to the ex-president's alleged embezzlement of 2.97 million US dollars in state funds.

The daughter, a dentist, became the latest person in the former president's family to be charged in the high-profile corruption scandal implicating Chen Shui-bian.

Lin said prosecutors also brought fresh charges against Chen Hsin-yu's physician husband Chao Chien-ming, and brother Chen Chih-chung with perjury for allegedly making false statements to try to cover up for the ex-president.

Chen Chih-chung was already charged in December with money laundering over the ex-president's graft scandal, while Chao was appealing against a six-year jail term in a separate insider trading case in 2006.

The three gave receipts of what they had spent personally to the ex-president's wife, Wu Shu-chen, to help account for state fund spending claims, and told prosecutors the claims were for official functions, Lin said.

Lin said prosecutors also added fresh charges against Wu for instigating the three to make the false statements.

The ex-president was charged along with his wife Wu in mid-December with embezzling 2.97 million US dollars in state funds, accepting 14 million US dollars in bribes, money laundering, influence peddling, extortion and document forgery during his two four-year terms from 2000 to 2008.

Chen Shui-bian, who has been detained since late December, has denied all the charges and has staged three hunger strikes to demand bail, but the court rejected his request, fearing he might flee abroad. (dpa)