A former Taipei mayor and presidential candidate who was detained over the weekend as part of a bribery investigation was ordered to be released by a Taiwanese court on Monday, citing insufficient evidence to support his incarceration.
In the January presidential election, Ko Wen-je, the head of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), stood as a third-party candidate and received almost 25% of the vote.
However, he was detained on Saturday due to his purported involvement in a real estate development controversy that transpired during his tenure as Taipei’s mayor from 2014 to 2022.
The Taipei district court declared on Monday that “there is still room for other reasonable explanations for the evidence presented by prosecutors” and that “prosecutors did not have enough evidence to continue detaining Ko.”
“The level of a ‘high possibility of committing the crime’ is not reached,” the court said in a statement after Ko was released.
“It cannot be concluded that the defendant… knowingly violated the law.”
After his release, Ko told reporters outside the court there was “no evidence” of his involvement in the property scandal.
Although Ko and his party have admitted that campaign money used during his presidential race were misreported—a different issue that has surfaced in recent weeks—they have always denied any misconduct in that case.
After expressing regret to his supporters on this disclosure last week, he declared on Thursday that he would be taking a three-month personal leave from his position as the party’s head.
In Taiwan’s divided parliament, the TPP won eight seats in the January election, giving it the position of kingmaker in the legislature.
Neither the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) nor Kuomintang (KMT), Taiwan’s largest opposition group, won enough seats for a clear majority.
TPP and KMT approved contentious amendments earlier this year that aimed to increase the parliament’s authority. Supporters claimed these reforms were necessary to combat corruption.
The DPP is against the reforms, which are presently being examined by Taiwan’s constitutional court.
