Ko Wiretap case takes ominous turn

Poster for Taichung mayoral candidate Hu and a local candidate in an aboriginal area.

The wiretap case in Taipei took a turn for the ugly:

On November 4, Ko aides said they found signs of wiretaps at his policy center, with wires having been installed in a telephone exchange which would have made it possible to tap two phones inside the policy center. The incident led to a war of words between the Ko camp and the campaign of his Kuomintang opponent, Sean Lien, accusing each other of being behind the bugging of phones.

The case took a new turn Friday evening, when prosecutors questioned two private detectives from Yilan County. The two, Wu Te-yi and Lin Chun-hung, had been found to have left prints on the telephone box inside the building, reports said.

After questioning them, the Taipei District Prosecutors Office requested their detention, but the court ruled early Saturday morning that there was not sufficient ground to hold them and ordered them set free without bail instead. Prosecutors said they would look at the court ruling before deciding whether or not to appeal against the two men’s release.

One of Ko's aides, surnamed Peng, knew one of the detectives. The police arrested and jailed Peng but the two detectives were released even though -- yep -- they had fingerprint evidence. They also had video from outside the building showing the two men entering, according to Apple Daily, in the company of a staffer from the Ko campaign. The inference the judicial system wants the public to make appears to be that Ko staged this himself, with Peng as the go-between and the detectives planting the wires.

Yeah, right.

Peng refuses to pay bail, since he is innocent, he says. Meaning that Peng is locked up and can't directly challenge anything said about him -- so now you know maybe why he was locked up and the detectives are free to disappear until after the election, as Maddog pointed out on Twitter yesterday.

As many observers have pointed out, detective agencies are untrustworthy and often do things to drum up business. Like fake wiretaps, for instance.
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