The High Court today ordered the Taipei District Court to hold another bail hearing for Taiwan People’s Party Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), after he was on Monday released without bail amid a probe into alleged corruption involving a shopping center redevelopment project.
The decision came after the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday appealed the initial ruling, citing additional evidence.
The project involves building a new office complex, Core Pacific Plaza, on the site of the Core Pacific City shopping mall in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山).
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
This morning, Ko said it would be great if he had tens of millions of New Taiwan dollars of cash flow, responding to a story published by Mirror Media saying that prosecutors had found large amounts of suspicious cash flow.
Ko had also reportedly signed onto a memo, saying: “To Pong: what is their conclusion? The principle is simple. Civil servants do not put themselves in jail. Ko.”
Ko yesterday said he had never participated in any of the meetings of the Urban Planning Commission, claiming he “did not know a thing” on the matter.
In a separate news conference today, Democratic Progressive Party spokesperson Cho Kuang-ting (卓冠廷) said it was certain that Ko consciously broke the law, citing two documents he had allegedly signed.
Despite being told twice that increasing the mall’s floor area ratio would involve legal risks, he still approved the project, Cho added.
Former Taipei deputy mayor Pong Cheng-sheng (彭振聲) has been detained and held incommunicado for his alleged involvement in the case.
Pong’s lawyer also appealed the court’s decision yesterday.
Additional reporting by Lee I-chia and Chen Yun
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