Taiwan People's Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), who has been detained incommunicado without charge for over 100 days, has been granted permission to send a resignation letter to his party.
The Taipei District Court ruled today that Ko's request would not interfere with the ongoing investigation into his alleged involvement in the Core Pacific City bribery case during his second term as Taipei mayor.
The leader of Taiwan's third-largest political party is being held at a detention center in New Taipei's Tucheng District and is not allowed to contact individuals outside the prison.
Photo: CNA
Prosecutors cited fears that Ko would collude with suspected co-conspirators or interfere with the investigation as reasons for the blanket gag order.
Ko submitted a request recently for restrictions on sending and receiving letters to be lifted so he could send his resignation letter to TPP Secretary-General Vincent Chou (周榆修).
The court said that the decision was made in consultation with Taipei prosecutors, and it agreed that Ko's resignation letter was unrelated to the investigation and posed no risk of collusion or interference.
A court official said that any lifting of restrictions on detainees — such as detention conditions, visitation rights, or communication — is specific and based on applications submitted by prosecutors and detainees.
Today's ruling only granted Ko permission to send a resignation letter and does not extend to other correspondence unrelated to his resignation, the official added.
In response to the district court's ruling, the TPP questioned the court's interpretation of its rules and regulations.
The court stated that Ko's resignation declaration would take legal effect automatically once submitted to the party.
The TPP said it had not yet received Ko's letter but emphasized that the party, not the court, should decide internal party matters.
Meanwhile, Ko was summoned for further questioning this morning, arriving at the Taipei District Prosecutors Office at 9:10am, following an eight-hour interrogation the previous day.
Taipei prosecutors are expected to finish their investigations next week.
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
China’s newest Type-076 amphibious assault ship has two strengths and weaknesses, wrote a Taiwanese defense expert, adding that further observations of its capabilities are warranted. Jiang Hsin-biao (江炘杓), an assistant researcher at the National Defense and Security Research, made the comments in a report recently published by the institute about the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) military and political development. China christened its new assault ship Sichuan in a ceremony on Dec. 27 last year at Shanghai’s Hudong Shipyard, China’s Xinhua news agency reported. “The vessel, described as the world’s largest amphibious assault ship by the [US think tank] Center for Strategic and International
RSS