Lawyer and former Taipei prosecutor Ko Chin-chu (柯金柱) was released on bail yesterday after being detained on suspicion of involvement in a case in which a man served time in jail on behalf of a criminal.
"Former prosecutor Ko is the attorney of Chen San-lung (
"Ko has been charged with concealment of an offender and destruction of evidence. Prosecutors ordered that he be released on NT$300,000 bail," Lin said.
PHOTO: CHEN TSE-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
Chen San-lung, a owner of a well-known record company, was sentenced to 18 months' jail by the Taiwan High Court in September 2003 for fraud offenses.
Prosecutors said Chen then escaped and was placed on a most-wanted list.
They alleged that last November, Chen paid Chung to report to Taoyuan Prosecutors' Office and impersonate him. Chung was duly jailed and served nine months in prison.
Prosecutors said that because Chen had been accused of pirating recordings by the late pop superstar Teresa Teng (
The court then asked the Taipei Prosecutors' Office to investigate the matter.
Prosecutors said that Ko had represented the fake Chen during the trial, and therefore knew about the switch.
Prosecutors on Tuesday raided Ko's office, residence and his girlfriend's residence, where they seized documents.
Ko yesterday told reporters he knew nothing about the switch and that he was innocent.
Ko quit his job as a prosecutor and became a lawyer last year.
Ministry of Justice officials yesterday said Taoyuan prosecutors and officials at the Taoyuan Prison should take responsibility for the scandal because they should have carefully checked Chung's identity before detaining him.
Chen was also arrested and detained on Tuesday.
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
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Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
The 2025 Kaohsiung Wonderland–Winter Amusement Park event has teamed up with the Japanese manga series Chiikawa this year for its opening at Love River Bay yesterday, attracting more than 10,000 visitors, the city government said. Following the success of the “2024 Kaohsiung Wonderland” collaboration with a giant inflatable yellow duck installation designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, this year the Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau collaborated with Chiikawa by Japanese illustrator Nagano to present two giant inflatable characters. Two inflatable floats — the main character, Chiikwa, a white bear-like creature with round ears, and Hachiware, a white cat with a blue-tipped tail
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