The second trial of Ke Wenzhe’s Beijing-related case and political donation case, the High Court ruled to allow the defense to copy 250GB of digital evidence

Former Taipei Mayor Ko Wenzhe was involved in Beijing City and political donation cases. After being sentenced to 17 years in prison in the first instance, he appealed. In the second instance, the defense lineup and litigation strategy were significantly adjusted. After the appeal, the case is currently being heard by the High Court. Ke's appointed lawyer Zheng Shenyuan requested to review the files. In order to be cautious, the collegial bench of the High Court held a special interrogation court today, but it was not made public. The defense requested unseen digital evidence. Zheng Shenyuan has obtained 250GB of flash drive files and taken them away.

On September 8, the High Court held a preparatory court for the second instance of the political donation case, summoning four people including Ke Wenzhe, former chairman of the Zhongwang Foundation Li Wenzong, brother and sister Li Wenjuan, and accountant Duan Muzheng. Ke Wenzhe and Li Wenjuan still maintain their innocence. Li Wenzong has a loose attitude towards the crime of breach of trust involving the Zhongwang Foundation's payment of 8 million yuan in salary to People's Party employees, saying that he will not rule out a guilty plea in the future; Duanmu Zheng pleads guilty and seeks a lighter sentence or suspended sentence.

Zheng Shenyuan recently applied to the High Court for review. In order to be cautious, the Collegiate Bench of the High Court also specially invited three prosecutors from the High People's Procuratorate to hold an interrogation session together. The court session started at 3 o'clock today, and it lasted for more than an hour and 30 minutes before it ended. In this regard, the High Court stated that this case is a petition case, and since it involves personal information, the procedure is not open to the public.

It is understood that Zheng Shenyuan applied for review in court for parts of the file that he considered problematic. There were some unseen digital evidence, and he asked to see it again. Especially when he applied for review before, he had been restricted from reading and not made public. He believed that all the evidence should be spread out and the parts that were beneficial to the defendant could not be hidden.

As for the prosecutor of the High People's Procuratorate who appeared in court, he suggested asking the court to consider whether to allow review of the file; in the end, the judge was ordered to rule that the 250GB flash drive file copied by Zheng Shenyuan could be taken away.