Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was arrested early yesterday morning after being questioned by prosecutors over his alleged role in a corruption scandal concerning the Core Pacific City redevelopment project during his tenure as Taipei mayor.
The arrest was made after Ko refused to be questioned at night and attempted to leave the prosecutors’ office, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said.
Prosecutors were worried that he would collude with others involved in the case to make false statements if they allowed him to leave, so they issued an order to arrest him, the office said.
Photo: Liu Wan-lin, Taipei Times
Ko yesterday sought a court ruling on the legitimacy of his arrest.
The Taipei District Court turned down his request later in the day.
Cheng Shen-yuan (鄭深元), Ko’s lawyer, said it was very late and Ko could not undergo further questioning.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Ko was summoned by the Agency Against Corruption on Friday and was questioned for about 12 hours before being sent to the prosecutors’ office early yesterday for more questioning.
A detention hearing was ongoing at press time last night.
An investigation into alleged corruption involving Ko and several others in the redevelopment of Core Pacific City in Taipei started amid suspicion about an increase in the floor area ratio (FAR) for the project from 560 percent to 840 percent during Ko’s time as mayor from 2014 to 2022.
The FAR refers to the ratio of a building’s total floor area to the size of the parcel of land upon which it is built. A higher FAR helps property developers make more profit due to expanded property value.
In May, Ko and others were named as suspects in the investigation.
Prosecutors also questioned officials from Ko’s administration, including former Taipei deputy mayor Peng Cheng-sheng (彭振聲).
Citing the Code of Criminal Procedure (刑事訴訟法), prosecutors said the arrest order was issued after Ko was informed of its necessity and his rights.
Prosecutors said that if Ko had been allowed to leave the office before they had finished questioning him, the risk that the investigation would be hindered would have increased.
The TPP yesterday morning in a statement urged the court to look into the legitimacy of Ko’s arrest and vowed to support its chairman’s rights.
Ko was questioned by the Agency Against Corruption before at about 12:30am yesterday being sent to the prosecutors’ office, where questioning continued until about 2am, the party said.
“During the questioning at the prosecutors’ office, Ko declined to be questioned at night, but prosecutors insisted the session would continue,” it said.
As Ko had faced nearly 19 hours of questioning, he declined to be questioned any more at that time, as he felt exhausted, it said.
The arrest was aimed at restricting Ko’s freedom of movement and the court should give him justice, it said.
Ko’s wife, Peggy Chen (陳佩琪), was also summoned on Friday by prosecutors as a witness in the case.
She was allowed to leave after being questioned.
Before Ko and his wife were summoned, prosecutors searched the former mayor’s home, office and the TPP’s headquarters.
Peng was summoned again on Friday for questioning.
He had also been questioned on Aug. 12.
He has been barred from leaving Taiwan.
Early yesterday morning, prosecutors sought to detain Peng, citing his involvement in the case.
Taipei City Councilor Ying Hsiao-wei (應曉薇) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and business tycoon Sheen Ching-jing (沈慶京), the chairman of Core Pacific Group (威京集團), which is in charge of the Core Pacific City project, were detained and held incommunicado late on Thursday night and early on Friday respectively.
Ying’s assistant Wu Shun-min (吳順民) is also being held in detention and incommunicado.
Sheen allegedly gave Ying more than NT$47.4 million (US$1.48 million) as part of his company’s effort to lobby the Taipei City Government to increase the FAR, prosecutors said.
In February 2020, Sheen, via an introduction by Ying, visited Peng several times, asking for the FAR to be boosted, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said they were also looking into the flow of additional funds Sheen allegedly gave Ying.
Besides being former Taipei mayor, Ko was a presidential candidate for his party in January’s election, winning more than 25 percent of the vote, an unprecedented achievement by a minor opposition party in Taiwan.
His success in the election is widely seen as changing the nature of politics in Taiwan, which had previously been dominated by two major parties.
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