Taiwan's High Court Friday upheld the island's former leader Chen Shui-bian's conviction on graft charges but cut his life sentence to 20 years after his appeal.

His wife Wu Shu-chen's life conviction for graft was also reduced to 20 years by the High Court.

The court is also considering whether to end Chen's detention and released him on bail. He has been in custody for more than 500 days.

However, after two hours of heated debate between prosecutors and defendants, the court did not announce its decision and Chen was sent back to the detention center.

Court sources said the court will announce the decision in a written statement "sometime later."

Chen's defense attorney Shih Yi-lin said he was not very optimistic about Chen's release.

Chen, 59, and his wife were both sentenced to life imprisonment by the Taipei District Court in September last year for corruption, embezzlement, money laundering and other abuses when he was in power from 2000 to 2008.

They were found to have embezzled 104 million New Taiwan dollars ($3.15 million) in public funds.

(Xinhua News Agency June 11, 2010)