A central defendant in a Taiwanese corruption case has vanished after destroying his electronic ankle monitor, an embarrassment for the courts and a blow to the prosecution.

• Chang Chun-chieh, an aide to independent lawmaker Kao Chin Su-mei, cut off his court-ordered ankle monitor and disappeared.
• The broken device was found in bushes at Da'an Forest Park in Taipei after its battery ran low and staff could not reach him.
• Taipei District Court has issued a warrant for his arrest, alerted border control, and plans to charge him with destroying public property.
• Chang had been released on bail with orders not to leave home, the country, or travel by sea.
• Prosecutors accuse Kao Chin Su-mei of using relatives as fake staff to claim public money over a decade, and of importing tens of thousands of unapproved Chinese COVID test kits during the pandemic; Chang is accused of pocketing government and state-firm grants for events he never held.

Outlook: The manhunt now becomes the story, and the case against both defendants will be harder to run with one of them missing.