Disgraced actor Ko cries for the cameras
Print Edition
TAIWAN movie star Kai Ko broke down and cried at a press conference yesterday after being released following 14 days’ detention in Beijing.
The 23-year-old, also known as Ko Chen-tung, who was held for smoking marijuana with Jaycee Chan, wept for a full minute before expressing his apologies to the public.
“I made a mistake,” he said.
“This case is a scar that will be on my body for life. But I can see it at any time and be reminded of my mistake,” he said.
The actor said he was “willing to correct” himself, and will “try to pass positive energy” to the public if allowed that chance.
Ko’s father apologized for not being more strict with his son.
“We thought it would be good to be his friend when he was a child, and I believe love can overcome evil,” he said.
“But today he is a public figure and we have to be more strict,” he said.
In an interview on Beijing TV, Ko promised never again to take drugs.
“It is illegal, and harmful to my body and the people around me,” he said.
The Taiwan-based United Daily News reported that the actor was scheduled to fly back to Taipei last night, where he will be questioned by police and prosecutors.
Ko’s agent Angie Chai said earlier she hoped the Taipei authorities might show leniency as her client had been detained in Beijing, but there remains the chance he will face further punishment.
If he is found to have become addicted to drugs, he will be made to go to a drug rehabilitation center, the report said.
Ko was detained by Beijing police on August 14. Acting on a tip-off that a man surnamed Sun was dealing drugs, officers raided a massage parlor in the capital and found Sun with Ko and 31-year-old Jaycee Chan.
Tests on the their urine showed they had both taken marijuana, and both men confessed to having used the drug, police said.
Police later raided Chan’s apartment in Beijing’s Dongcheng District, where they seized more than 100 grams of marijuana.
According to videos provided by police to China Central TV, Chan said he first took marijuana in 2006 in the Netherlands, where personal consumption is largely tolerated. In the years that followed, he frequently invited friends to his home to smoke the drug.
Ko said he first tried marijuana at Chan’s home in 2012.
“It was a little bit unexpected when he took out the marijuana, but I didn’t think it was a big deal,” he said while in detention.
“I was foolish and naive to think I could leave it alone after just one try.”
Chan is in criminal detention in Beijing on the charge of allowing others to take drugs at his home. The offense carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison.
Ko was released from Dongcheng District Detention House early yesterday.
During his confinement he was made to get up at 6am and go to bed at 10pm. He repeatedly wrote the Chinese word “zheng,” which translates as “integrity,” on the wall of his cell, China News Service quoted Chai as saying.
A man who was held in the same house claimed Ko received preferential treatment from his captors, the report said.
Unlike other criminals, the actor was not made to wear prison uniform, and was allowed to smoke cigarettes, the cellmate was quoted as saying.
“He was also given his own bed,” he said.
“Sometimes we joked with him, saying we loved him, but he never responded. He didn’t show any emotion.”
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