The Taipei District Court yesterday began hearing oral arguments in high-profile cases against former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), who is accused of accepting bribes in a property development deal and misappropriating political donations.
Prosecutors said Ko knowingly intervened in the Core Pacific City development project dispute during his tenure as mayor, despite repeated warnings from city officials to resolve it through legal channels.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
They said that Core Pacific Group chairman Sheen Ching-jing (沈慶京) repeatedly lobbied the Taipei City Government between 2010 and 2018 with little success.
However, after 2020, Ko approved almost all of Sheen's requests, including changes to the development project's detailed plans and floor area ratio (FAR), prosecutors said.
They alleged that Ko was aware of the large financial stakes involved and that he and Sheen coordinated their actions to secure unlawful benefits.
Ko, speaking briefly to reporters outside the court, rejected the allegations as politically motivated.
"Courts should focus on facts and evidence, not compile stories based on conjecture," he said, without elaborating.
Ko, the founder and former chair of the Taiwan People's Party, was among 11 people indicted in December last year in a corruption case in which Sheen is alleged to have bribed Ko in exchange for favorable treatment.
The investigation into the project started amid suspicion about the sharp increase in the FAR — the total floor space of a building divided by the size of the land it sits on — from 560 percent to 840 percent.
Ko faces a potential sentence of 28.5 years for allegedly accepting bribes of NT$17.1 million (US$543,789) in the property development deal and embezzling political donations during his presidential campaign last year.
Yesterday's oral arguments centered on the prosecutors' indictment.
Today, Ko and his legal team are expected to present their defense.
Ko maintains that he is innocent and that the corruption charges against him are politically motivated.
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
RSS