The Taipei District Court yesterday agreed to extend the detention of Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), who is suspected of profiteering allegation involving real-estate developers during his time as Taipei mayor.
The ruling extending Ko’s detention and keeping him incommunicado — which is subject to appeal — was made due to fears of possible collusion that would undermine the investigation, the court said.
Substantial evidence points to Ko’s serious involvement in a suspected contravention of the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例), which carries a minimum penalty of five years, the court said.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
Evidence suggests that Ko’s alleged accomplices are still at large and further investigation is required to clarify other details, it said.
“After weighing the balance between public interest and the defendant’s rights, and considering proportionality, it was determined that alternatives such as bail, liability or residential restrictions are not feasible, making detention necessary,” it said.
Prosecutors on Oct. 25 filed a motion with the Taipei District Court to extend Ko's detention, alleging him of accepting bribes from real-estate developers and using his supervisory role to benefit others during his second term as Taipei mayor from 2018 to 2022.
Ko has been detained and held incommunicado since Sept. 5.
Prosecutors can apply to a court to detain and hold suspects incommunicado, under certain conditions, for up to two months at a time — for a maximum of four months — as an investigation is conducted.
The extension of Ko’s detention came as no surprise, as the Taipei District Court earlier this week approved prosecutors’ requests to extend the detention of other major suspects in the case, including Core Pacific Group (威京集團) chairman Sheen Ching-jing (沈慶京) and Taipei City Councilor Ying Hsiao-wei (應曉薇) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
Prosecutors have accused Sheen of distributing NT$47.4 million (US$1.48 million) in bribes to convince city government officials to increase the floor area ratio — the amount of floor space a developer can build on a given plot of land — above the limit for a project Sheen was involved in.
Sheen was redeveloping a site formerly occupied by the Core Pacific City shopping mall in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山). Increasing the ratio would mean more space could be sold.
Ying is believed to have been a go-between between Sheen and high-ranking officials, including Ko and then-deputy Taipei mayor Pong Cheng-sheng (彭振聲), who the court has also ordered detained for a second two-month period.
The TPP in a news release expressed “regret and anger” over the court’s ruling.
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office has abused its authority by raiding the party’s offices and holding Ko in pre-trial detention, the TPP said.
The prosecutors have no evidence against Ko, but they have been fishing and leaking information to the media to try him in the court of public opinion, it said, adding that the case was “blatantly motivated by politics.”
The investigation has achieved nothing in the past two months despite Ko’s cooperation in not contesting his pre-trial detention and pleas for the justice system to reveal the truth about the allegations against him, it said.
Most people being questioned had nothing to do with the Core Pacific City project and the investigation is not proceeding according to any discernible logic, it said.
The TPP said it “supports the legal defense team in filing an appeal on behalf of Ko to restore his freedom,” as the judiciary is serving the interests of the Democratic Progressive Party.
This story has been amended since it was first published.
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