00:00Taiwan People's Party founder Kuo Wenzhe is leaving detention after being held incommunicado for a year during a corruption investigation.
00:09Our reporter Tiffany Wong joins us live from outside the courthouse where Kuo's supporters are waiting for him.
00:15Tiffany, what is the latest on the case?
00:20Hi, Leslie. Well, just any minute now, we are expecting Kuo Wenzhe to step outside the doors of this courthouse on bail.
00:28At least a few hundred people have gathered just a few hundred meters away from me, waiting to hear Kuo speak to the media and his supporters after he's been released on bail, as I said.
00:42And they have been waiting a really long time.
00:46He was granted this bail offer by the court on Friday, and he did take the weekend to decide, and we just learned this morning,
00:53that he would pay that two million U.S. dollars bail, a very hefty amount for a very high-profile trial here.
01:02Now, it's been a very hectic year for Kuo.
01:05He spent most of the year detained incommunicado while being investigated for corruption and embezzlement during his time as Taipei mayor,
01:14as well as while he was running for president in 2024.
01:17And during that time, Kuo's father passed away, so his wife says that once he is free to go,
01:25Kuo wants to go first to see his mother in Shinsu and then to visit his father's grave site.
01:32So it looks like there's lots of people there.
01:35Why has Kuo's case attracted so much attention in Taiwan?
01:38Well, Kuo does have quite a lot of supporters.
01:45He was Taipei mayor for eight years.
01:48He also founded the Taiwan People's Party, which is now the third largest party in the legislature.
01:54And Kuo himself posed a pretty strong bid for president in the last election,
01:58getting 25 percent of the vote, which is really significant for a third party.
02:03Kuo's supporters, as I said, have been waiting a long time to see him.
02:06They recently took to the streets to call for his release and also call for justice.
02:13They've been calling this trial judicial persecution from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party and the government.
02:21In December last year, he was released briefly on bail.
02:24But just a few days later, prosecutors successfully appealed to re-detain him.
02:29And now the judge says that it's unlikely that Kuo will be able to destroy evidence
02:34or collude with others, given that most of the key defendants have already been investigated in this case.
02:41Now, besides visiting his mother, Kuo's wife said that he really wants to go around the country to thank his supporters.
02:49But, of course, his bail does come with some conditions,
02:51and it's unclear if he'll be able to do that or leave his residence for very long.
02:58Of course, there is also the chance that prosecutors could appeal to re-detain him.
03:02So we'll be keeping an eye on developments.
03:06Thanks, Tiffany.
03:07That was Tiffany Wong live outside the courthouse.
03:10She'll be keeping tabs on the case and we'll have more on Kuo's case later.
03:14We'll be keeping an eye on Kuo's case later.
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