Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) supporters protested in Taipei against former chairman Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) conviction for corruption, saying that the judiciary is no longer about fairness and justice, but has become a tool for those in power.
The Taipei District Court on Thursday sentenced Ko to 17 years imprisonment and forfeiture of civil rights for six years in its ruling of the Core Pacific City (京華城) case and the other cases related to political donation embezzlement.
The court said Ko accepted NT$2.1 million (US$65,872) in bribes in 2020, when he was mayor of Taipei, through proxies of Core Pacific Group chairman Sheen Ching-jing (沈慶京) in exchange for Core Pacific Group to gain NT$12.1 billion in illegal profit through unfair advantages in land usage licensing.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
The TPP called the ruling political persecution of Ko, holding a rally on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office Building yesterday.
Addressing the crowd, TPP Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) accused the Democratic Progressive Party government of interfering with justice and said that people gathered at the rally not just to vindicate Ko but to call for judicial fairness and a fair trial from President William Lai (賴清德).
“Today, I publicly challenge Lai to a debate,” he said. “I will make it clear to you, so that you may reflect, that the judiciary should not be a tool of politics, but should instead uphold fairness and justice.”
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Former TPP legislator Chang Chi-kai said the ruling is unreasonable because the payoff was disproportionate with the severity of the sentence.
The remark was echoed by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯), who said the NT$2.1 million political donation to the TPP should have been legal, but was determined by the judges to be evidence of corruption.
More than 20 KMT lawmakers, including Hsu, showed up at the rally to show support for Ko.
Ko said it was not an aboveboard trial, questioning the reasoning behind the verdict and saying it could erode public trust in Taiwan’s judiciary.
The Core Pacific City case was one that had followed legal procedures and was retroactively intervened in by the judiciary, he said, adding that it could deter public officials from administering the law properly in the future.
This could raise concerns about selective enforcement, undermining the foundation of the rule of law, he added.
Ko in his speech called on his supporters not to lose confidence and to unite efforts to push for reform, rebuild social trust and seek a new path forward for Taiwan.
TPP said that 80,000 people participated in the rally, and the number of online viewers exceeded 100,000 during the event.
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