Taiwan’s political system fractured on Thursday.
The Taipei District Court sentenced former Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je to 17 years in prison. The landmark conviction under the Anti-Corruption Act effectively decapitates the island’s emerging third political force. He is now permanently disqualified from the 2028 presidential election.
The court also stripped Ko of his civil rights for six years.
The ruling centers entirely on the Core Pacific City redevelopment scandal. Prosecutors successfully argued that Ko accepted 2.1 million NTD in bribes. The money was funneled as fake political donations through seven dummy accounts. In exchange, Ko’s administration illegally expanded the floor area ratio for the mall project. This directly benefited the developer.
Prosecutors originally sought a 28.5-year sentence.
The Taiwan People’s Party reacted with immediate fury. Party officials view the conviction as an orchestrated government purge rather than a legitimate legal proceeding. Taichung City Councilor Jiang He-shu publicly condemned the ruling. He called Thursday “the most cruel day in judicial history.”
The party claims the governing powers weaponized the courts to eliminate a prominent challenger.
Ko disrupted the traditional two-party dominance during the 2024 election. He captured a massive youth demographic and built a formidable coalition. Taiwanese election law strictly dictates that anyone sentenced to 10 or more years is banned from running for the presidency. This first-instance ruling creates an existential crisis for the TPP and fundamentally alters the balance of Asian politics going forward.