(Kaiwind, October 29, Reporter: Li Jie, Correspondent: Wang Ping)Taipei mayoral candidate Ko Wen-je recently released a statement and held a press conference, denying the allegations from the book The Slaughter cooked up by Falun Gong organizations.
On October 27, Ko’s campaign office issued a statement, claiming, “Doctor Ko Wen-je did not get involved with ‘the contact with officials from the Mainland’ or ‘the purchase of organs’ as described in the book.” The statement also said, “What the writer wrote in the book is very different from what the doctor said in the interview”, and “Doctor Ko Wen-je has requested his lawyer to issue an official letter, requiring the writer to correct the book”.
In the press conference held on the morning of October 28, as a response to his alleged involvement in organ trade with the Mainland, Ko Wen-je said, “I am not the one described in the book. The book gave wrong interpretations in many places.” He added that there was too much exaggeration in the book with facts only accounting for thirty percent, According to Ko Wen-je, he had never said such things as “all of the organs came from Falun Gong followers”.
Since 2006, Falun Gong has fabricated an astonishing rumor, claiming that Chinese government supported harvesting of organs from living Falun Gong practitioners. Meanwhile, Falun Gong spread the rumor to western countries in collusion with some foreigners. Ethan Gutmann was one of them. Ethan Gutmann wrote the book the Slaughter, spreading the rumor of live organ harvesting for Falun Gong. Previously, Falun Gong’s allegation aroused doubts from medical staff, who regarded the allegation as too ridiculous. For instance, Falun Gong claimed that a cerebral surgeon in Sujiatun Hospital removed 2, 000 corneas from Falun Gong practitioners within two years. It is reported that nothing in Gutmann’s book is more convincing than what Doctor Ko Wen-je said in an interview as an evidence for the crime of live organ harvesting. But Ko Wen-je said in the statement that what was described in the book was not true.
