Taipei court grants Koo permission to visit China for three days

Taipei, June 6 (CNA) The Taipei District Court has granted Jeffrey Koo Jr. (辜仲諒) permission to travel to China for three days to handle baseball-related matters, setting bail at NT$150 million (US$5.02 million), despite the business tycoon facing criminal charges and being barred from leaving Taiwan.

Koo, former vice chairman of CTBC Financial Holdings Co., was sentenced by the Taipei District Court on May 13 to seven years and eight months in prison for his role in a building purchase scandal.

The court said that although the ruling is subject to appeal, Koo has been banned from leaving the country for eight months.

Concurrently serving as president of the Baseball Federation of Asia (BFA) and executive vice president of the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC), Koo applied to the court to lift the travel restriction from June 5-7 so he could visit China to prepare for two upcoming baseball tournaments.

The Asian Baseball Championship and the Women's Baseball Asia Cup are scheduled to take place in China in September and October, respectively.

As BFA president, Koo said he will to be briefed by the Chinese Baseball Association on preparation work for the upcoming events on June 6.

He added that he has also been invited by the Shanghai Administration of Sports to visit the city from June 5-7 for a range of baseball activities and planning discussions.

The Taipei District Court on Tuesday granted Koo permission to visit China after consulting the prosecutor's office and reviewing his conduct in similar cases where travel restrictions had previously been lifted.

Sports Administration Director-General Cheng Shih-chung (鄭世忠) also appealed to the court by serving as a guarantor for Koo's return.

The court rejected Koo's application to visit Japan from June 8-10 for his campaign ahead of the upcoming WBSC election in October.

(By Lin Chang-hsun and Chris Wang)

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