Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), who has been detained and held incommunicado without charge for more than 100 days, has been granted permission to send a resignation letter to his party.
The Taipei District Court yesterday ruled 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 City’s Tucheng District (土城) and is not allowed to contact people outside.
Photo: Taipei Times
Prosecutors cited fears that Ko would collude with suspected co-conspirators or interfere with the investigation for the blanket gag order.
Ko submitted a request recently to lift restrictions on sending and receiving letters to deliver 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.
Yesterday’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.
The TPP in response to the ruling questioned the court’s interpretation of its rules and regulations.
The court said 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, adding that the party, not the court, should decide internal party matters.
Ko was summoned for further questioning yesterday 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.
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
RSS