The Taipei District Court has rejected a request by former Taipei Mayor Ko
Wen-je for a short exemption from his travel ban to attend his son's
graduation ceremony in Japan.

The ruled the trip to be unnecessary - saying Ko's presence is not essential
for the graduation to take place and that his absence would not prevent his
son from successfully obtaining his degree.

Ko filed a request with the court to allow him to visit Japan from March
23-25 to attend his son's doctoral graduation ceremony at the University of
Tokyo last week.

The request was opposed by the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office - which
argued Ko had not presented a concrete plan to ensure he would not flee or
collude with co-defendants.

The Taipei District Court stated that Ko failed to provide sufficient
rationale for the court to lift the travel restrictions imposed when he was
released on bail of 70-million N-T in September of last year.

Ko had been in custody for a year prior to that on corruption-related
charges linked to the Core Pacific City project and political donations.

The district court's decision can be appealed.