Prosecutors want Taiwan People's Party founder Ko Wen-je formally detained amid a corruption scandal. It's outraged his supporters and fellow party members.
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00:00Through the night, fans of Ke Wen-je, the former Taipei mayor and founder of Taiwan's
00:04third party, held vigil outside the Taipei prosecutor's office.
00:08They say talk of corruption during Ke's mayorship has been fabricated.
00:12And they're angry at Ke's arrest on Saturday after he refused to go on with hours of questioning
00:16about alleged profiteering from a shopping mall.
00:19If Abe is wrong, we will not support him, but we believe he is innocent.
00:24We all came here voluntarily.
00:26Now prosecutors want Ke formally detained.
00:29Ke's Taiwan People's Party is enraged.
00:32At a Sunday morning press conference, it suggested prosecutors leaked details of the case to
00:36turn the public against Ke.
00:39It also says investigators took documents and asked questions that have nothing to do
00:42with the case being investigated, looking for anything they might be able to pin on
00:47him.
00:48We used the case of Jin Hua-cheng to apply for a search warrant.
00:55And party leaders also said Ke's relationship to the mall had already been resolved with
01:10Taipei city officials back when he was still mayor.
01:13They said reopening the case, and questioning him about other scandals, shows democracy
01:18and the rule of law are under threat.
01:20If the request to detain Ke is granted, it will bring a party that had made much of being
01:32anti-corruption into a deeper crisis, leaving its future as uncertain as it's ever been.
01:38But party leaders seem determined that no matter what, they won't go down without a
01:41fight.
01:43Andy Xue and John Ventri asked for Taiwan Plus.