Preliminary investigations by a task force looking into the alleged wiretapping of independent Taipei mayoral candidate Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) campaign office yesterday confirmed that someone had tampered with the building’s main switchboard.
Police said they were still waiting for a fingerprint analysis to be completed before further inquiries could be made.
However, sources said that despite fingerprints being difficult to retrieve because of the size and shape of the wires involved, the police have already completed work on the evidence gathered from two switch boxes and declared that all personnel in the office have been cleared of any suspicion.
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said the fingerprint profiling was conducted by the police and it has yet to receive an update on the matter.
According to the investigation, the main switchboard on the first floor had been tampered with, while two “additional wires” found connected to a third-floor switchboard were transmission wires connected to storage or wireless transmission equipment.
Chunghwa Telecom had installed visible wires on the main switchboard to facilitate future repairs, while the other wires connected to each floor are internalized in a small storage space in the main switchboard room, the investigators said.
The usual rerouting of wires would not require the storage facility to be opened, making the main switchboard the crux of the investigation, police said.
However, a telecommunication serviceman surnamed Chu (祝) who rerouted wires at the building on Nov. 5 — when Ko’s office first discovered the wires — said he had not found anything suspicious in the switchboards on the first and third floors.
The investigators said someone might have installed the suspicious wires after Chu was finished working, adding that as Chu did not have to access the storage compartment, he could not have been expected to find hidden wires attached to the main switchboard.
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