The High Court yesterday overturned a Taipei District Court decision to release Taiwan People’s Party Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and sent the case back to the lower court.
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office on Saturday questioned Ko amid a probe into alleged corruption involving the Core Pacific City development project during his time as Taipei mayor.
Core Pacific City, also known as Living Mall (京華城購物中心), was a shopping mall in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山) that has since been demolished.
Photo: Wang Ching-yi, Taipei Times
On Monday, the Taipei District Court granted a second motion by Ko’s attorney to release him without bail, a decision the prosecutors’ office appealed immediately.
A collegiate bench of High Court judges said in a ruling yesterday evening that there is substantial evidence implicating officials of Ko’s administration in alleged bribetaking from Core Pacific Group (威京集團) chairman Sheen Ching-jing (沈慶京).
Ko’s claims of ignorance about the alleged scheme while he approved changes to the project’s scope based on recommendations of experts at the Taipei Urban Planning Commission mean an investigation is warranted, it said.
The judge who granted Ko’s no-bail release failed to appropriately review the evidence presented by the prosecutors in its entirety, it said.
Meanwhile, an appeal by former Taipei deputy mayor Pong Cheng-sheng (彭振聲) was missing a signature and would be processed after the omission is rectified, the High Court said.
The Taipei District Court in the first ruling said that there were reasonable explanations for Ko to have unknowingly approved allegedly illegal amendments to the project’s terms.
The prosecutors did not prove there was sufficient cause to treat Ko as a suspect who wittingly accepted bribes, the lower court said.
Former Ko officials named as suspects in the case include Pong, former Department of Compulsory Military Service commissioner Chu Yea-hu (朱亞虎) and Urban Planning Commission Executive Secretary Shao Hsiu-pei (邵琇珮).
Ko is accused of conspiring with the officials to accept kickbacks from Sheen to change the floor area ratio for the project.
Lin Jou-min (林洲民), former head of the Taipei Urban Planning Commission, confirmed a Mirror Media report that he had expressed concern that the city government could be breaking the law if it agreed to change the FAR.
The objection was submitted in writing and the memorandum’s content agreed with findings in the Control Yuan’s corrective measure against the city in 2016, Lin said.
The Urban Planning Commission deemed the project to be a priority and thoroughly briefed Ko on it, Lin said.
“Whether Ko knew about [the project] is a question that we all can clearly answer in our mind,” he added.
INVESTIGATION: The case is the latest instance of a DPP figure being implicated in an espionage network accused of allegedly leaking information to Chinese intelligence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) member Ho Jen-chieh (何仁傑) was detained and held incommunicado yesterday on suspicion of spying for China during his tenure as assistant to then-minister of foreign affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮). The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said Ho was implicated during its investigation into alleged spying activities by former Presidential Office consultant Wu Shang-yu (吳尚雨). Prosecutors said there is reason to believe Ho breached the National Security Act (國家安全法) by leaking classified Ministry of Foreign Affairs information to Chinese intelligence. Following interrogation, prosecutors petitioned the Taipei District Court to detain Ho, citing concerns over potential collusion or tampering of evidence. The
Seventy percent of middle and elementary schools now conduct English classes entirely in English, the Ministry of Education said, as it encourages schools nationwide to adopt this practice Minister of Education (MOE) Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) is scheduled to present a report on the government’s bilingual education policy to the Legislative Yuan’s Education and Culture Committee today. The report would outline strategies aimed at expanding access to education, reducing regional disparities and improving talent cultivation. Implementation of bilingual education policies has varied across local governments, occasionally drawing public criticism. For example, some schools have required teachers of non-English subjects to pass English proficiency
‘FORM OF PROTEST’: The German Institute Taipei said it was ‘shocked’ to see Nazi symbolism used in connection with political aims as it condemned the incident Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 yesterday amid an outcry over a Nazi armband he wore to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case on Tuesday night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and apparently covering the book with a coat. This is a serious international scandal and Chinese
NEGOTIATIONS: The US response to the countermeasures and plans Taiwan presented has been positive, including boosting procurement and investment, the president said Taiwan is included in the first group for trade negotiations with the US, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, as he seeks to shield Taiwanese exporters from a 32 percent tariff. In Washington, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in an interview on Fox News on Thursday that he would speak to his Taiwanese and Israeli counterparts yesterday about tariffs after holding a long discussion with the Vietnamese earlier. US President Donald Trump on Wednesday postponed punishing levies on multiple trade partners, including Taiwan, for three months after trillions of US dollars were wiped off global markets. He has maintained a 10 percent
RSS