The Taipei District Court last night granted bail for a second time to Taiwan People's Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) after rejecting a detention request from prosecutors investigating corruption allegations against him.
The ruling was made despite the High Court earlier yesterday overturning the lower court's decision on Friday to grant him on NT$30 million bail.
The High Court revoked the lower court's bail ruling after the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office petitioned it to have Ko, Taipei City Councilor Angela Ying (應曉薇), Core Pacific Group (威京集團) founder and chairman Sheen Ching-jing (沈慶京), and Lee Wen-tsung (李文宗), finance chief of Ko’s presidential election campaign, returned to pre-trial detention for their alleged corruption related to the Core Pacific City Co (京華城購物中心) redevelopment project.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
After the High Court’s ruling, the Taipei District Court yesterday afternoon held another hearing on whether the suspects should be detained.
The district court late last night decided to grant Ko bail, but increased the amount to NT$70 million and ordered Ko must wear an electronic tracking bracelet.
On Friday morning, Sheen was released on NT$40 million bail, Ying on NT$15 million bail and Lee on combined NT$10 million bail.
Ying, Sheen, and Lee were also granted bail for a second time last night. The district court increased the amount of bail for Sheen to NT$100 million.
The prosecutors said they wanted the suspects returned to detention after finding another key figure in the case who had fled abroad and did not comply with a request to cooperate with the investigation.
The suspects remain a flight risk, and could collude on testimony or tamper with evidence in this or three related cases, prosecutors said.
The prosecutors did not ask the court to reconsider the release of former Taipei deputy mayor Pong Cheng-sheng (彭振聲), who was released on NT$5 million (US$152,812) bail, as he had admitted to guilt and cooperated during the investigation.
In its ruling yesterday, the High Court said the Taipei District Court did not give sufficient reasons for why the suspects should no longer be detained, nor did it explain the measures to be taken to prevent them from fleeing the country.
It also said that bail court judges on Friday did not explain whether the set bail figures matched the alleged illicit profits made by the suspects in the case.
The High Court also said that during searches, investigators found destroyed documents and papers at Ko’s offices, as well as deleted communications and messages allegedly made by Ko, which it said could be indicative of evidence tampering.
Ko is accused of accepting bribes of up to NT$17.1 million to help Core Pacific Group illegally increase the floor area ratio of the Core Pacific City redevelopment project in a bid to raise the financial value of the property.
Ko is also accused of embezzling more than NT$68 million of political donations during his campaign for this year’s presidential election and illegally using donations made to a foundation, established by Ko in 2022, to pay the salaries of his campaign staff.
Prosecutors are seeking a prison sentence of 28 years, six months for Ko — 15 years for bribery, five years and six years for separate cases of embezzlement, and two years, six months for breach of public trust.
This story has been updated since it was first published.
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