TaiwanPlus speaks to Taipei-based lawyer Michael Fahey about the questions raised over the prosecution of Taiwan People's Party founder Ko Wen-je on charges of corruption.
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00:00Cohen is currently in pre-trial detention where he can be kept for a maximum of four
00:05months while prosecutors build their case against him.
00:08Can you tell us a little bit about how pre-trial detention works in Taiwan and how it differs
00:12from common law countries like the US and the UK?
00:16Pre-trial detention is something that's commonly seen in what we call civil law countries,
00:22which are countries that have legal systems based on continental Europe, especially Germany,
00:31but also France.
00:33And in criminal cases, we see pre-trial detention.
00:38Here in Taiwan, it can be up to four months.
00:43In Japan, I think in theory it's 23 days, but it can be extended many times.
00:49Cohen is far from the only politician in Taiwan to have been investigated for corruption.
00:54Can you tell us how common it is that charges are eventually brought in these cases?
00:58And if he is convicted, what kind of a punishment could he be looking at?
01:03These kinds of cases are extremely common, probably more common on the city and council level.
01:12You'll see cases like this every few months with indictments and pre-trial detentions
01:18of council speakers and civil servants in the bureaucracy and that kind of thing.
01:25You probably see a major case like this involving a national level politician like Ke once every
01:31three or four years.
01:32He'd be looking at a multi-year prison sentence, especially if there was a bribe, seven years,
01:3910 years, something like that.
01:40It depends on the number of acts of corruption and a lot of variables.
01:45Reports of Ke and his Taiwan People's Party say that this investigation into him has got
01:49some serious flaws, what they've called procedural injustice, and they've even gone so far as
01:55to say that the current government is carrying out what it calls political persecution.
01:59Do you think that their concerns over the way this case has been handled are legitimate?
02:04I think that they have some legitimate concerns, but those are concerns that all criminal suspects
02:11have in Taiwan.
02:13Their main concern seems to be that information is leaking out of the prosecutorial investigation
02:21that's adverse to Mayor Ke, and they're right.
02:27Those proceedings are supposed to be absolutely confidential and secret.
02:32I also think that there's a serious concern with the abuse of the pre-trial detention
02:38procedure as a form of hostage justice.
02:42It's real easy for the prosecutors to put two or three different people involved in
02:47the case in pre-trial detention.
02:50It's scary.
02:51There's a lot of questioning late at night.
02:55They're using it as a tool to coerce.
02:59I think they have some legitimate complaints, but they're complaints that all criminal defendants
03:04in Taiwan have, and hopefully this will be a chance for everybody to reflect on how we
03:09can have a more just criminal justice system.