Taipei City Councilor Ying Hsiao-wei (應曉薇) and Sheen Ching-jing (沈慶京), founder and chairman of the real estate conglomerate Core Pacific Group, were both released on bail this afternoon after being indicted yesterday with Taiwan People’s Party Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) on bribery and other charges.
Ying burst into tears and denied any wrongdoing and corruption allegations as she paid her bail of NT$15 million (US$460,000) and left the court in Taipei at around 4pm.
Sheen, who was released on bail of NT$40 million earlier today, left the court in a wheelchair and was sent to the National Taiwan University Hospital for a medical check-up.
Photo: CNA
His family brought the money to pay his bail this morning.
During the detention hearing yesterday, Sheen denied bribing Ko with NT$15 million, saying he “didn’t give him a single penny.”
He said he wanted to support a third party because he was sick of the two major parties — the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Sheen said he wanted to be released on bail because he is unwell.
The Taipei District Court rejected prosecutors' requests to detain the five defendants in the case, including Ko, Ying, Sheen, former Taipei Deputy Mayor Pong Cheng-sheng (彭振聲) and Lee Wen-tsung (李文宗), finance chief of Ko's 2024 presidential election campaign.
Pong and Lee were also released earlier today after paying their respective bails.
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,
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Ferry operators are planning to provide a total of 1,429 journeys between Taiwan proper and its offshore islands to meet increased travel demand during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, the Maritime and Port Bureau said yesterday. The available number of ferry journeys on eight routes from Saturday next week to Feb. 2 is expected to meet a maximum transport capacity of 289,414 passengers, the bureau said in a news release. Meanwhile, a total of 396 journeys on the "small three links," which are direct ferries connecting Taiwan's Kinmen and Lienchiang counties with China's Fujian Province, are also being planned to accommodate
RSS