Detention of TPP Chairman Ko Wen-je extended

Taipei, Nov. 1 (CNA) The Taipei District Court on Friday agreed to extend the detention of Taiwan People's Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) on suspicion of allegedly accepting bribes from real estate developers during his tenure as Taipei mayor.

The court said the decision to extend Ko's detention came amid fears over possible collusion in falsifying testimony that would undermine the efforts of prosecutors to investigate the case.

Prosecutors suspect that Ko violated the Anti-Corruption Act by accepting bribes from real estate developers and using his supervisory role to benefit others during his second term as Taipei mayor from 2018 to 2022.

Ko has been detained and held incommunicado since Sept. 5 before prosecutors sought to extend his detention for another two months.

A court hearing on the extension was originally scheduled for Thursday, but it was rescheduled for Friday due to Typhoon Kong-rey.

The prosecutors' success in extending Ko's detention came as no surprise, as the Taipei District Court earlier this week approved prosecutors' requests to extend the detention of other major suspects in the case.

They include Sheen Ching-jing (沈慶京), chairman of the Core Pacific Group, which is in charge of the controversial Core Pacific City redevelopment project, and Taipei City Councilor Ying Hsiao-wei (應曉薇).

Prosecutors have alleged Sheen paid bribes of NT$47.40 million (US$1.48 million) to sway city government officials to abnormally increase the floor area ratio (FAR) -- the amount of floor space a developer can build on a given plot of land -- for a project Sheen was involved in.

Sheen was redeveloping the site formerly occupied by the Core Pacific City shopping mall in Songshan District, and increasing the FAR would mean Sheen could sell more space in the project.

Ying has been believed to have acted as a go-between between Sheen and high-ranking officials, including Ko, and then-Deputy Mayor Pong Cheng-sheng (彭振聲), who the court has also ordered detained for the second time.

The TPP, the third largest party in the Legislative Yuan, has argued the allegations against Ko are a "politically motivated" prosecution by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party government.

Ko, running for the TPP, finished third with 26.46 percent of the vote in Taiwan's January 2024 presidential election.