Former Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) chairman Ko Wen-je, who is detained on corruption charges, was granted permission yesterday to leave the Taipei Detention Center to attend his father’s funeral in Hsinchu.
Ko, 65, departed the detention center at 7:10am accompanied by eight Agency of Corrections officials, and was transported by van to the Hsinchu City Mortuary, where a private memorial service was held at 9am.
During the service, Ko delivered a eulogy in which he apologized to his father for not being with him at the time of his passing, calling it a “regret of a lifetime.”
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He also asked his father not to worry about him, saying his legal issues would eventually pass and that he would “again see the light of day.”
At about 10:15am, Ko emerged from the memorial service and boarded the van to return to Taipei, while his wife, Peggy Chen (陳佩琪), shouted that “politics is influencing the courts; the courts are harming human rights.”
The founder and former leader of Taiwan’s third-biggest political party, Ko has been held incommunicado since early January following his indictment in December last year on charges of bribery, embezzlement and breach of public trust dating back to his second term as mayor of Taipei from 2018 to 2022, as well as activities surrounding his involvement in the presidential election campaign last year when he ran as the TPP’s candidate.
Ko’s father, Ko Cheng-fa (柯承發), died aged 92 on Feb. 17. Ko Cheng-fa had been critically ill and was hospitalized at National Taiwan University Hospital’s Hsinchu branch in the weeks prior to his passing.
Following his father’s death, a Taipei court on Feb. 27 ruled that Ko would be allowed to have contact with his family members until the day of his father’s funeral on compassionate grounds.
The Taipei Detention Center on Friday last week said it had approved Ko’s request to attend his father’s funeral.
Many politicians from the three main political parties attended the funeral to pay their respects, including former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
The Presidential Office had offered to send a representative to the funeral to extend condolences, but the Ko family declined the offer, TPP caucus secretary-general Vicky Chen (陳智菡) said.
A TPP official said that the party had received funeral flower baskets from figures across the political spectrum, including KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), TPP Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the KMT, and DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘).
Floral arrangements were also sent by members of the public, as well as multiple city mayors and county magistrates, the official added.
Ko resigned as TPP chairman last month, facing a combined 28-year, six-month prison term comprising of 15 years for bribery, 5 years and 6 years for separate cases of embezzlement and 2.5 years for breach of public trust, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office has said.
Additional reporting by Hung Mei-hsiu
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