The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday condemned the indictment of party Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), accusing the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of persecuting a political rival and attempting to silence the 3.69 million Taiwanese who voted for Ko in this year’s presidential election.
TPP officials made the remarks at a news conference in response to the indictment of Ko, who has been charged with bribe-taking, illegally benefiting others, embezzlement and breach of trust, in connection with the Core Pacific City development case and the handling of his presidential campaign contributions. Prosecutors are seeking a total sentence of 28 years, 6 months for Ko, including 15 years for bribery, five years and six years for separate cases of embezzlement, and two-and-a-half years for breach of public trust.
“Today is one of the darkest days for Taiwan’s democracy,” TPP Central Committee member Lin Fu-nan (林富男) told the news conference.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
“Over the past four months, the administration of [President] William Lai (賴清德) colluded with the DPP, the police and the media to besmirch my party in an attempt to eliminate it,” he said.
The information in the indictment appeared to be “pieced together from random sources” without detailing cash flows, failing to account for the “where” and “how” Ko took the alleged bribes, Lin said.
“Ko was a presidential candidate supported by 3.69 million citizens, and politically persecuting him is tantamount to undercutting the rights of 3.69 million Taiwanese who exercised their will,” Lin said.
TPP Legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) also slammed what he said was the inability of the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office to produce any concrete evidence in the indictment, despite launching a probe that lasted four months.
The office ended the news conference yesterday morning about Ko’s indictment without a question-and-answer session, which showed its lack of confidence in its own investigation, Huang said.
Earlier in the day, the DPP urged the TPP to read the indictment and examine all the evidence before attempting to frame the prosecution as a miscarriage of justice.
“Should other wrongdoing [by Ko] be exposed and he receive a life sentence, the prison terms would be consolidated into 30 years at most,” DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) told a morning news conference at the legislature.
“If you do not pay back the illicit gains, you will get the maximum prison term, and there is almost no difference between 28-and-a-half years and 30 years,” Ker added.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) said that it remains steadfast in its stance that no crimes should go unpunished, but opposed any trumped-up charges.
In a statement, the KMT expressed hope that the judges would try the case in a fair and just manner so the Republic of China’s judicial system regains public trust.
The Taipei City Government yesterday said it does not rule out issuing a stop-work order for a property redevelopment construction site involved in the bribery case.
The city government said it would hold a meeting to discuss the floor area ratio and other matters in connection with the Core Pacific City redevelopment project within the next two weeks following the release of the indictment against Ko.
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