TAIPEI (Reuters) -Taiwan prosecutors have charged a former mayor of Taipei who heads a small opposition party with accepting T$17.1 million ($522,392) in bribes over a major property development in the capital and misuse of political donations.
Prosecutors asked for a combined total of more than 28 years in prison for Ko Wen-je, saying he had helped a conglomerate “illegally benefit” to the tune of billions of Taiwan dollars. He also embezzled tens of millions in political donations, the Taipei District Prosecutors Office said in a statement on Thursday.
Ko, mayor from 2014 to 2022 and who came third in January’s presidential election, was arrested in August after investigators raided his home and party and questioned him for hours.
Reuters was not able to reach Ko for comment, who is currently detained. Ko has previously denied wrongdoing in the property case, which involves approvals given for a shopping centre project when he was mayor.
The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), which was founded by Ko, told a media briefing the prosecutors failed to offer concrete evidence to support Ko’s bribery charges and said it was a “political prosecution” and called for his release.
Ko and several other TPP members were also charged for the misuse of political donations to the party, including embezzling donations of more than T$68 million.
He and the TPP have previously acknowledged that campaign funds during the presidential campaign were misreported.
The TPP said Ko did not embezzle any political donations, which it said was used according to Taiwan laws.
Ko has been widely expected to seek the presidency again at the next election in 2028. But opinion polls show that the scandals have hammered support for him and the TPP, which he founded in 2019 in an attempt to create a third force in Taiwanese politics.
The TPP has only eight lawmakers in Taiwan’s 113-seat parliament but has an outsized role as neither the ruling Democratic Progressive Party nor the largest opposition party, the Kuomintang, has a majority.
($1 = 32.7340 Taiwan dollars)
(Reporting By Yimou Lee; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
