Thousands of people gathered in front of the Presidential Office at the
weekend to protest the Taipei District Court's sentencing former Taiwan
People's Party chairman Ko Wen-je to 17-years prison for corruption and
bribery.

Organizers say rally attracted over 10,000 people as of 2PM Sunday, but that
number had grown to around 80,000 by 5PM.

Police did not provide an estimate of the crowd size.

Ko told protesters the judiciary had become a "political tool" used to
persecute the public and that prosecutors had operated without sufficient
oversight or checks and balances.

Current T-P-P Chairman Huang Kuo-chang also addressed the crowd ...

... and he accused prosecutors of threatening witnesses and fabricating
interview records, saying they violated the legal principle of nonpublic
investigation in favor of "chaotic public disclosure."

Several K-M-T member also attended the rally - including 22 lawmakers.

K-M-T lawmaker party spokesperson Niu Hsu-ting accused the the government of
trying to eliminate political opponents and silence dissenting voices.

D-P-P spokesperson Lee Kuen-cheng says the party will not comment further on
individual judicial cases out of respect for the judiciary and is urging the
K-M-T and the T-P-P to not claim to be standing with the public while
"paralyzing" major budget bills in the Legislature.