Taiwanese prosecutors accused former Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je, who established the Taiwan People’s Party, of corruption for his supposed bribery, including briberies from a land real estate development project deemed as a controversial issue when he was the mayor, along with embezzling political donations.
Prosecutors claim that Ko took bribes in exchange for letting the Core Pacific City group in Taipei evade city building regulations. It is this development which is at the heart of the charges as prosecutors claim that Ko assisted the company in receiving illegal benefits worth billions of dollars, while pocketing millions of dollars in bribes.
Lead prosecutor Kao Yi-shu said, “The defendant, Ko, broke his promise as a mayor not to accept bribes and follow our national laws. Instead, Ko aimed to assist the group in securing billions of dollars in illicit benefits while collecting millions of dollars in bribes.
Ko has denied the charges before. He could not be contacted for comment. His party, the TPP, described the charges as politically motivated and said the government is “abusing power” by making it a “political thug.” Lin Fu-nan, a central committee member of the TPP, also urged the “black hand of politics not to reach into the judiciary.”
Ko, a former doctor, entered the political arena after winning the 2014 Taipei mayoral race, and he had served two terms until 2022. He established the Taiwan People’s Party in 2019 as an alternative to Taiwan’s traditional two-party system. Ko ran for president this year, and though he only came in third, it was quite interesting because of the appeal of the young people.
Although the TPP is a minor party, it is still allied with the Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) in Taiwan’s legislature. It has recently helped to pass three controversial laws that critics claim will weaken President Lai Ching-te’s political influence and paralyze the Constitutional Court.
