Taiwanese court orders release of former Taipei mayor arrested in corruption investigation

A court in Taiwan has ordered the release of a former mayor and presidential candidate who was arrested for his alleged role in a corruption scandal, saying there was insufficient evidence to justify his detention.

The Taipei District Court ruled on Monday that Ko Wen-je, former Taipei mayor and chairman of the Taiwan People's Party (TPP), should be released after finding that prosecutors failed to provide evidence to justify his detention.

The court said the prosecution had failed to meet the standard of a “high probability” that Ko had committed a crime.

“It cannot be concluded that the defendant … knowingly violated the law,” the court stated in its ruling.

Ko was arrested on Saturday as part of an investigation into alleged corruption in the redevelopment of the Core Pacific City shopping mall in the Taiwanese capital.

Ko, who finished third in the presidential election in January, told reporters outside the court that there was “no evidence” of his involvement in the real estate scandal.

Ko is a trained surgeon and entered politics in 2014 when he successfully ran for mayor of Taipei as an independent candidate.

In 2018, he was re-elected as mayor of Taipei and the following year founded the TPP as a third force to challenge the dominance of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the China-friendly Kuomintang (KMT).

Under the TPP banner, Ko received about a quarter of the votes in the last presidential election, which was won by William Lai Ching-te of the DPP.

Although the TPP has only eight representatives in the 113-seat Taiwanese parliament, it has gained enormous influence since neither the DPP nor the KMT has a governing majority.

Ko, who draws much of his support from youth, is widely considered a candidate for the next election in 2028, although his popularity has been damaged by a separate campaign donations scandal.

On Thursday, Ko said he would take a three-month leave of absence from the TPP leadership to take responsibility for misreporting campaign funds and using campaign subsidies to set up a personal office.