Court approves detention of Lo

Former legislator Lo Fu-chu leaves the Taipei District Court accompanied by police yesterday after prosecutors successfully appealed a court order to release Lo. PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES

The Taipei District Court yesterday approved prosecutors' request to detain former independent lawmaker Lo Fu-chu (羅福助) for further investigation.

Tu Ying-ta (杜英達), Lo's lawyer, said that Lo was pretty shocked by the decision after the 13-hour hearing.

"He believes that someone, perhaps his political enemies, are trying to interfere with justice and are picking on him," Tu said. "He looked pretty upset about this."

Before entering the courtroom, Lo said he was fairly confident that everything would be fine.

"Prosecutors were worried that I might go on the run," Lo said. "Well, here I am. I came here on time. I believe our judicial system will prove me innocent. Don't charge me with things I haven't done."

The court yesterday held a hearing to revisit the issue of whether to approve prosecutors' request to detain the former independent lawmaker. The hearing began at 9:30am and ended at 10:30pm.

The hearing was ordered by the Taiwan High Court on March 15.

"Prosecutors were worried that I might go on the run. Well, here I am. ... I believe our judicial system will prove me innocent. Don't charge me with things I haven't done."

Lo Fu-chu, former independent lawmaker

That court said that an earlier arrest of Lo was lawful and asked the Taipei District Court to hold a hearing to determine whether Lo should again be taken into custody.

Prosecutors and police from the Taiwan High Court Prosecutors' Office, the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office and the Taipei City Police Headquarters' Criminal Investigation Corp arrested Lo on suspicion of fraud, breach of trust and usury on Feb. 1, the first day when Lo lost his immunity from prosecution as a lawmaker.

At the time, prosecutors filed a request to detain Lo for longer than the maximum 24 hours for which suspects may be detained without the approval of a district court judge.

On Feb. 3, Taipei District Court judges Yeh Chien-ting (葉建廷), Kuo Hui-ling (郭惠玲) and Chen Te-min (陳德民) released Lo, stating that his arrest had been "improper," and that it would therefore be unlawful to detain him.