Taipei official barred from leaving Taiwan in Core Pacific City case

Taipei, Sept. 3 (CNA) A Taipei City government official is barred from leaving Taiwan over her alleged role in suspected corruption linked to the Core Pacific City redevelopment project approved under the administration of former Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲).

Shao Hsiu-pei (邵琇珮), currently the executive secretary at the city government's Urban Planning Commission, was questioned as a corruption suspect overnight by prosecutors from the Taipei District Prosecutors Office.

Early Tuesday morning, prosecutors ordered that she cannot leave the country or change her abode.

Prosecutors had searched Shao's house on Monday, one day after she returned from a two-week trip to Japan.

Prosecutors believe that Shao illegally helped Core Pacific Group, a company with real estate interests, raise the floor area ratio of the redevelopment project in 2020 in order to financially benefit the company. The project involves building a new office complex named Core Pacific Plaza on the site of the Core Pacific City shopping mall in Taipei's Songshan District.

Shao worked as chief engineer at the city's Department of Urban Development at the time.

Ko, who is leader of Taiwan's third-largest political party and who served as mayor of Taipei at the time of the allegedly corrupt real-estate dealings, was released without bail early on Monday morning after being interrogated by prosecutors over the weekend.

Former Taipei Deputy Mayor Pong Cheng-sheng (彭振聲), Taipei City Councilor Ying Hsiao-wei (應曉薇), Ying's assistant Wu Shun-min (吳順民) and Core Pacific Group Chairman Sheen Ching-jing (沈慶京) are currently all being detained and held incommunicado for their alleged involvement in this case.

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