TAIPEI, Taiwan — A former Taiwanese presidential candidate who was once mayor of the capital Taipei has been returned to custody as part of a sprawling corruption investigation.
Ko Wen-je was returned to detention Thursday night in handcuffs after a legal panel overruled an earlier order allowing him to return home. sure. He is being held incommunicado, unable to speak to anyone outside the facility in which he is being held.
Ko’s case involves alleged illegal favors and payments from a web of business people and local level politicians brought to light by an urban redevelopment project that stood to bring investors massive profits by avoiding required reviews. He has the option of further appealing on Friday.
Despite intense media attention, the case appears to be having little effect on Taiwan’s robust democracy and independent legal system. Ko heads the Taiwan People’s Party and drew support in this year’s elections from young Taiwanese looking for an alternative to the two party system that has governed Taiwanese politics for the last two decades.
Taiwan has been dominated by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party and the remainder of the Nationalist Party that fled to Taiwan after the Communist Party’s takeover of mainland China in 1949.
Ko and others were named in May in a scandal in which the developer of the downtown Core Pacific Center shopping center was given permission to massively expand the floor space available for lease during Ko’s 2014-2022 term as mayor. Ko has said he had no knowledge or involvement in the case, despite evidence suggesting he was aware and also participated in other questionable financial arrangements. He can be held for up to four months while the investigation continues.
The Taipei District Court ruled that his continued detention was necessary because of the amount of funds involved, the seriousness of the alleged crimes and the likelihood of him working in cooperation with others involved to hide evidence and manufacture testimony.
Ko finished third with about a quarter of the vote in this year’s election, which was won by the DPP’s William Lai Ching-te, whose party favors continued de-facto independence from China. The TPP won just under 3% of the seats in the legislature.
Ko did particularly well among young people despite having no clear political platform. He was unable to agree to an alliance with either the DPP or the Nationalists, leaving him with few political allies outside his own supporters, a few hundred of whom have rallied outside Taipei’s courthouse.
Despite unsupported accusations of judicial persecution against the government, President Lai has not commented directly on Ko’s case.
Once a major scourge on Taiwan’s democracy, political corruption has declined as a top concern amid a strengthening of the power of independent investigators.