Prosecutors yesterday appealed a court decision to release former Taiwan People's Party (TPP) chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) on bail, pending his trial on corruption charges.
After a year in incommunicado detention, Ko was released on Monday on bail of NT$70 million (US$2.3 million), but he is required to wear an electronic tracking device and is barred from leaving the country.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
Prosecutors said they have appealed Ko's release, as they have arranged to question several witnesses next month.
They include Huang Ching-mao (黃景茂), former director of the Taipei Department of Urban Development; Vivian Huang (黃珊珊), former Taipei deputy mayor and TPP lawmaker; and Wu Shun-min (吳順民), assistant to Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Angela Ying (應曉薇), prosecutors said.
A defendant should be detained until witness questioning is complete, prosecutors said.
Ying was released on bail of NT$30 million on Friday last week in the same corruption case, and prosecutors have also filed an appeal against her release.
According to prosecutors, when Ko was in detention, he instructed others to post social media messages under his name in a bid to collude with witnesses to give false testimony and to influence public opinion.
Prosecutors said that soon after Ko was released on Monday, he violated the bail terms by contacting two witnesses in the corruption case: his aide Chen Chih-han (陳智菡) and TPP Taipei City Councilor Chen You-cheng (陳宥丞).
After his release, Ko also claimed that another suspect in the case was innocent, prosecutors said.
The suspect, Lee Wen-tsung (李文宗), finance chief of Ko's election campaign last year, is scheduled to be questioned on Tuesday next week, and Ko was trying to collude with him, prosecutors said.
The Taipei District Court granted Ko's release on Friday last week, stipulating that he must stay at a registered address, wear an electronic monitoring device, remain in the country and refrain from contacting other defendants or witnesses in the case.
After posting bail on Monday afternoon, Ko traveled to Hsinchu to see his mother and returned to Taipei about three hours later.
Ko had been detained incommunicado since Sept. 5 last year, and was indicted in December that year on charges related to accepting bribes of NT$17.1 million in a property development deal during his tenure as Taipei mayor and embezzling political donations during his presidential campaign.
Prosecutors are seeking a total sentence of 28.5 years for Ko, who has maintained his innocence and argued that the charges are politically motivated.
Ten other suspects have also been indicted in the case, including Ying, Lee, former Taipei deputy mayor Pong Cheng-sheng (彭振聲), and Sheen Ching-jing (沈慶京), founder and chairman of the real-estate conglomerate Core Pacific Group.
Eight Chinese naval vessels and 24 military aircraft were detected crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait between 6am yesterday and 6am today, the Ministry of National Defense said this morning. The aircraft entered Taiwan’s northern, central, southwestern and eastern air defense identification zones, the ministry said. The armed forces responded with mission aircraft, naval vessels and shore-based missile systems to closely monitor the situation, it added. Eight naval vessels, one official ship and 36 aircraft sorties were spotted in total, the ministry said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) today said that if South Korea does not reply appropriately to its request to correct Taiwan’s name on its e-Arrival card system before March 31, it would take corresponding measures to alter how South Korea is labeled on the online Taiwan Arrival Card system. South Korea’s e-Arrival card system lists Taiwan as “China (Taiwan)” in the “point of departure” and “next destination” fields. The ministry said that it changed the nationality for South Koreans on Taiwan’s Alien Resident Certificates from “Korea” to “South Korea” on March 1, in a gesture of goodwill and based on the
Taiwanese officials were shown the first of 66 F-16V fighter jets purchased by Taiwan from the United States, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday, adding the aircraft has completed an initial flight test and is expected to be delivered later this year. A delegation led by Deputy Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) visited Lockheed Martin’s F-16 C/D Block 70 (also known as F-16V) assembly line in South Carolina on March 16 to view the aircraft. The jet will undergo a final acceptance flight in the US before being delivered to Taiwan, the
The New Taipei Metro's Sanyin Line and the eastern extension of the Taipei Metro's Tamsui-Xinyi Line (Red Line) are scheduled to begin operations in June, the National Development Council said today. The Red Line, which terminates at Xiangshan Station, would be connected by the 1.4km extension to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, while the Sanyin Line would link New Taipei City's Tucheng and Yingge stations via Sanxia District (三峽). The council gave the updates at a council meeting reviewing progress on public construction projects for this year. Taiwan's annual public infrastructure budget would remain at NT$800 billion (US$25.08 billion), with NT$97.3
RSS