Taiwan People’s Party leader Ko Wen-je has been released after a court found insufficient evidence to justify his detention.
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, citing insufficient evidence to hold him.
The Taipei District Court on Monday ruled that Ko Wen-je, the former mayor of Taipei and leader of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), should be freed after finding that prosecutors had not filed a case for his detention.
The court said prosecutors failed to meet the standard that there was a “high probability” that Ko had committed a crime.
“It cannot be concluded that the defendant … knowingly violated the law,” the court said in its decision.
Ko was arrested on Saturday as part of an investigation into alleged corruption in the redevelopment of the Core Pacific City mall in the Taiwanese capital.
Ko, who came third in January’s presidential election, told reporters outside the court that there was “no evidence” of his involvement in the real estate scandal.
A trained surgeon, Ko entered politics in 2014 when he successfully ran for mayor of Taipei as an independent candidate.
He was re-elected mayor of Taipei in 2018 and the following year founded the TPP as a third force to challenge the dominance of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the pro-China Kuomintang (KMT).
Under the TPP banner, Ko won roughly a quarter of the vote in the last presidential election, which was won by the DPP’s William Lai Ching-te.
While the TPP has only eight lawmakers in Taiwan’s 113-member parliament, the party has gained extraordinary influence because both the DPP and the KMT lack a ruling majority.
Ko, who draws much of his support from young people, is widely seen as a candidate for the next election in 2028, although his popularity has been dented by a separate campaign fund scandal.
On Thursday, Ko said he would take a three-month leave from the TPP leadership to take responsibility for misreporting campaign money and using election subsidies to set up personal office space.
