A legal battle between President Ma Ying-jeou and his predecessor Chen Shui-bian may be on the horizon, as Chen's office has continually withheld important files from Ma. After repeatedly denied access to the documents, the Presidential Office now considers taking this issue to court.

After President Ma Ying-jeou took office in May 2008, his aides discovered that countless documents were missing from the Presidential Office.

It was later discovered that Ma's predecessor, Chen Shui-bian, had taken 20 cartons of documents and files with him when he left office.

Ma has never laid eyes on these files even after more than two years in office, and the two sides are now engaged in a legal battle.

According to Chen's attorneys, only Chen knows the contents of the documents, and only he can process them.

Therefore, the documents won't see the light of day until Chen is released from detention.

On August 31st, Ma's legal team gave Chen three days to return the documents to the Presidential Office.

In response, Chen's team said that the documents belonged to Chen, and that he needs them to write his memoirs.

However, Ma's team believes that the documents contain state secrets and belong in the national archives.

In accordance with the Classified National Security Information Protection Act, Chen and his aides will be subject to criminal prosecution if just one document in the 20 cartons contains classified information.

Chen's aides are already denying having so much as touched any of the documents.