Analysis: Ko Wen-je's Trial and Sentencing Recommendation

TaiwanPlus News

With the charging of former Taipei Mayor and 2024 presidential candidate Ko Wen-je on corruption charges, TaiwanPlus spoke to Taipei-based attorney Colin Wu about the charges and how the case might move forward.

Transcript

00:00So, prosecutors have charged Kowinja with a number of crimes related to corruption.

00:06But what exactly is Ke being accused of here?

00:10Based on the press release from the Taipei District Prosecutor's Office, so the accusation

00:15against Mr. Ke can be divided into, I would say, three major areas.

00:20So the first will be Mr. Ke is accused of accepting two bribes in amount of 2.1 million

00:27and 15 million NT dollars.

00:30That is in terms of the floor area incentive for the Tsinghua City project.

00:35They increased the floor area ratio for the Core Pacific project to 840%, meaning that

00:41a total building can be constructed.

00:43And the second one would be the embezzlement of 6 million NT dollars, political donations

00:50from the Taiwan People's Party, the alleged purpose for the portrait rights, and the payment

00:56of salaries to the Mukke employees and the investment in other companies.

01:00Mukke is a company that is formed by Mr. Ke, I believe.

01:03The third major area will be the misuse of the 8 million funds from the Zhongwang Foundation

01:10to pay the salaries for the personnel involved in election-related activities.

01:15So I think another thing worth mentioning is that Ms. Ke pleaded not guilty during the

01:20investigation stage and also the detention hearing in the Taipei District Court.

01:25Prosecutors have recommended a sentence of more than 28 years if he is convicted of all

01:30of these crimes.

01:32That seems like quite a lot for white-collar crimes.

01:36Is this typical of this kind of case?

01:38So the 28 years is like an accumulation of all the accusations brought by the prosecutor.

01:45And typically, the court will not accept such a high sentence.

01:50So that is kind of, I think, just a suggestion from the prosecutor.

01:54The court has no obligation to follow such suggestions, especially for former government

02:00officials.

02:01Typically, the court will, if Mr. Ke is found guilty, so the court will issue or render

02:07a relatively, I would say, a longer period of sentence against the former government

02:12officials.

02:13Typically, how long does one of these cases take?

02:15Do you expect this to wrap up before the next local elections in two years?

02:20I don't think so, because in my, like, in the sense of the judges, like the practice

02:26of Chinese court, I don't think that the court will, like, take into the legislation election

02:32into consideration where rendering your judgment.

02:35So it will all depend on the progress of this case, such as whether how many witnesses will

02:40be subpoenaed during the hearings.

02:43So the more witnesses subpoenaed, the longer the trial will be.

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