Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), former chairman of the Taiwan People's Party (TPP), was sentenced to 17 years in prison by the Taipei District Court on Thursday in the Jing Hua Cheng development case. Hours later, Ko appeared at a TPP press conference and announced he would appeal — then turned his remarks into a direct assault on President Lai Ching-te and the island's judiciary.
"This trial is not the end," Ko said. "Lai Ching-te (賴清德) , I will absolutely not surrender. Lai Ching-te, I will not yield."
Ko declared that Taiwan's courts had become synonymous withmoxuyu(莫須有) — a classical term for fabricated guilt, historically linked to the politically ordered execution of Song dynasty general Yue Fei(岳飛) — and that the entire proceeding had been a political performance, not a search for truth. "Rules of evidence were discarded, witness testimony was selectively accepted, procedural justice was abandoned entirely," he said. "What we witnessed was not the trial of a rule-of-law state."
Ko also noted that public trust in Taiwan's judiciary had already been low before this case. He pointed out that even the presiding judge had acknowledged the fragility of the country's legal institutions. Ordinary citizens, he said, were far more vulnerable than the courts when facing the power of the state — and this verdict would only deepen that crisis.
Prosecutors Deceived The Court, Ko Says
More than a year ago, the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office and the Agency Against Corruption conducted simultaneous raids on over 50 locations — Ko's home, his office, and TPP headquarters — on the grounds that funds used to purchase a commercial property were bribes from Shen Ching-ching, founder of the Wein Group. Ko was ultimately convicted on a 13-year corruption charge tied to a TWD 2.1 million (approx. USD 65,000) political donation to the TPP — money he says he knew nothing about.
Ko alleged that prosecutors deliberately misrepresented the legal basis for floor area ratio incentives in the Jing Hua Cheng case, buried favorable evidence, and filed false information with the court to secure search warrants. "I did not provide improper benefits, and I did not engage in corruption," he said. The authorities, he added, had never publicly explained the grounds for the original raids, communicating instead through media leaks.
Ko said no civil servant had ever testified that he directed anyone on how to handle floor area ratio matters. "If I was not involved at all, how could I have provided improper benefits?" Over a year of state investigation, he noted, had turned up no illicit financial flows.
"The presumption of innocence has been replaced by a presumption of guilt. Detention has been used to extract confessions in place of substantive evidence. Political considerations have overridden procedural justice," Ko said. "What is collapsing is not one individual case — it is the judicial credibility of the entire nation."
'Remove One Ko Wen-je, And Millions Will Rise"
Ko warned that if prosecutorial misconduct was not the work of rogue individuals but reflected institutionally tolerated behavior, the most vulnerable citizens would suffer most. If judges defer to hierarchical pressure rather than ruling independently, he argued, defendants lose any meaningful chance of a fair trial the moment charges are filed.
"If a state can prosecute on vague circumstances, infer that a political donation necessarily implies a subsequent quid pro quo, and convict without evidence — then anyone in Taiwan could be next," Ko said. "This is a crisis for Taiwan."
Addressing the ruling party directly, Ko closed with a warning: "You think that by destroying one Ko Wen-je, you can clear the path for your party in future elections. I tell you — remove one Ko Wen-je, and there are tens of millions of xiaocao who will rise. We will stop the judiciary from continuing its decline, and stop it from becoming a political instrument."
Xiaocao (小草, "little grass") is the name TPP supporters use to identify themselves, drawn from the party's green sprout symbol.
Ko's legal team said it will file an appeal upon receiving the written judgment.
