The Taipei District Court yesterday again approved bail for former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and Taipei City Councilor Angela Ying (應曉薇), keeping their original bails of NT$70 million and NT$40 million (US$2.32 million and US$1.32 million) respectively.
The ruling follows a decision by the High Court on Friday last week to overturn an earlier district court order granting bail to Ko and Ying on the condition that they wear electronic tracking devices and remain in Taiwan.
They were also barred from contacting, harassing, threatening or asking for information from other defendants or witnesses in the case.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
Ko, who had been detained incommunicado since September last year until Monday last week, when he was released on NT$70 million bail, maintains that he is innocent and that the corruption charges against him are politically motivated.
Ying, who has been indicted in connection with Ko’s case, was released on bail on Sept. 5.
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office appealed the bail orders on Tuesday last week, arguing that key witnesses had not yet completed their testimony and that Ko had contacted witnesses Chen Chih-han (陳智菡) and Chen You-cheng (陳宥丞) after posting bail.
The High Court found the prosecutors’ appeal justified, revoked the earlier bail ruling and returned the case for a new decision.
Ko and Ying are on trial for corruption and other offenses, in what is known locally as the “Core Pacific City case.”
Ko faces a potential sentence of 28-and-a-half years for allegedly accepting bribes of NT$17.1 million in a property development deal during his tenure as Taipei mayor and embezzling political donations during his presidential campaign last year as leader of the Taiwan People’s Party.
In its ruling yesterday, the district court said that while some witnesses have yet to appear in court, they have testified under oath during the investigation and defense attorneys did not dispute that the testimony would be admissible as evidence during the trial.
The district court said the existing court documents will allow prosecutors and defendants' lawyers to make their cases at the upcoming hearings, and it therefore decided to once again grant Ko and Ying bail and impose restrictions on their movements.
In addition, the court said, the large amount of bail set will impose psychological pressure and restrictions on Ko and Ying that will serve as a substitute to detention to ensure that the upcoming hearings proceed smoothly.
Prosecutors said they will await the official court document on yesterday's ruling to study whether or not to appeal the latest lower court ruling.
In response to the district court ruling, the TPP said that based on the principle of presumption of innocence, Ko's constitutionally protected personal freedom and freedom of communication should not be restricted.
The TPP said that as Ko has been suffering physically and mentally, the party will continue to give support him through the legal process and stand by him and his family to defend his innocence.
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
RSS