TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Former Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) will have to spend an extra two months in detention over the Core Pacific City corruption case, the Taipei District Court ruled Friday (Nov. 1).

The court agreed with the prosecutors’ argument that the Taiwan People’s Party founder could collude with other defendants if he were set free on Nov. 5, following his first two months in detention. The court session to discuss the detention took two-and-a-half hours Friday morning, after being postponed from Thursday because of Typhoon Kong-rey. 

Explaining his decision, the judge said that when investigators visited Ko on Aug. 30, the former mayor kept them waiting outside for almost an hour. They later found out he had been deleting messages from his phone, per the Liberty Times.

Ko has been detained since Sept. 5 as the investigation determines whether his city administration accepted bribes from developer Sheen Ching-jing (沈慶京) in return for the expansion of the floor area ratio on the Core Pacific City project.

Other defendants in detention included Sheen, former Taipei Deputy Mayor Pong Cheng-sheng (彭振聲), and Kuomintang Taipei City Councilor Angela Ying (應曉薇), who allegedly accepted money from Sheen in return for pressure on city officials. Ko’s former secretary, Hsu Chih-yu (許芷瑜), left Taiwan for Japan before searches and raids in the case were conducted in late August and has still not returned.