By acquitting Ma Ying-jeou of graft charges on Tuesday, the judges at the Taipei District Court acquitted Taiwanese democracy. Now voters, not judges, will decide who will be the island's next president. During the Kuomintang's last two decades of martial law, the regime - under Chiang Ching-kuo, who Mr Ma loyally served as English secretary - maintained the pretence of democracy, while regularly jailing the democratic opposition on trumped-up charges.
Taiwanese Vice-President Annette Lu Hsiu-lien spent years in KMT jails as did Premier Chang Chun-hsiung and the head of the civil service, Yao Chia-wen. Even President Chen Shui-bian spent several months in jail during the early 1990s while the authoritarian state was winding down.
When he approved a recent amnesty releasing thousands of criminals from Taiwanese jails a few months ago, despite widespread public opposition, Mr Chen commented that even one day in prison was one day too many.
For Mr Chen and the Democratic Progressive Party, Mr Ma must have been a tempting target. There is no question that Mr Ma should have never allowed public funds to slip into his personal bank accounts. The DPP leadership, made up entirely of lawyers, has run legal circles around the KMT for the past eight years - winning lawsuits and Supreme Court decisions on issues ranging from the 2004 presidential election to the constitutionality of Taiwan's National Communications Council.
At the same time, Taiwan's powerful prosecutors have become dangerously politicised - it is widely believed that two-thirds are pro-KMT and one-third is pro-DPP. Taiwan's legal system is an inquisitorial one, based on German and Japanese models. Prosecutors see themselves as avenging angels of justice and they have sweeping powers to tap phones, raid the homes of suspects and detain them for months before trial. In a telling example of prosecutorial power, just one day before the Ma verdict, media and construction tycoon Gary Wang Ling-lin was indicted on charges of massive corporate fraud after spending months incommunicado in jail. The prosecutors asked for a sentence of 28 years; the public rejoiced.
In Mr Ma's case, the prosecutors waited until the last moment to tack on the serious criminal charge of breach of trust. Fortunately, the ridiculously young panel of judges courageously recognised that Mr Ma was on trial for essentially political reasons, and found him innocent. The implications for the 2008 presidential campaign and, more importantly, Taiwanese democracy, are enormous.
Mr Ma is the first candidate put forward by the KMT democratically. He is also the only credible candidate that those in favour of closer relations with Beijing have left. If he does not win next year's election, the stark truth is that Taiwan will never be integrated into a greater China peacefully. Even if he does win, it is likely that he will only be able to maintain a formal commitment to unification, while being unable to act.