Taiwan’s presidential hopeful Ko charged with bribery, misusing donations

Former major of Taipei Ko Wen-je has been indicted over property development and campaign finance scandals.

Taiwan’s former presidential candidate Ko Wen-je has been charged for allegedly accepting bribes and misusing political donations.

Ko was indicted by prosecutors on Thursday following probes into alleged corruption in the redevelopment of a shopping centre in Taipei during his time as mayor of the Taiwanese capital and campaign finance irregularities during his 2024 presidential run.

The Taipei District Prosecutors Office said in a statement that it was seeking a sentence of 28 and a half years in prison for Ko, who is accused of accepting T$17.1 million ($522,392) in bribes and embezzling donations of more than T$68 million.

Prosecutors also announced charges against several members of Ko’s Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) over the misuse of political donations.

Ko, who served as mayor of Taipei from 2014 to 2022, previously denied wrongdoing in a real estate development case following his arrest in August, though he acknowledged the misreporting of campaign funds.

A Taipei court ruled the following month that Ko, a surgeon by training, should be released from custody as prosecutors had not met the standard of there being a “high possibility” he committed a crime.

Ko, who came third in January’s presidential election with about 27 percent of the vote, had been widely seen as a contender for the presidency in 2028.

The TPP, which Ko co-founded in 2019, holds eight seats in the 113-member Legislative Yuan.

The party has worked with the Beijing-friendly Kuomintang to pass a series of controversial legal changes that the ruling Democratic Progressive Party says are aimed at restricting President William Lai Ching-te’s ability to govern the island.

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Al Jazeera and news agencies