TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Prosecutors were demanding tough sentencing in the case of former President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) alleged underselling of Kuomintang (KMT) media companies to friendly private groups, reports said Wednesday (Aug. 11).

The verdict by the Taipei District Court, which can be appealed, is scheduled for Oct. 27. The case involves the sale of the movie company the Central Motion Picture Corporation (CMPC), the radio station Broadcasting Corporation of China (BCC) and the television station China Television Company (CTV) in 2006, when Ma was KMT chairman.

The prosecutor said the former president had projected a “bad attitude” during the trial and should therefore receive a strong sentence from the court, the Liberty Times reported. While as party chairman, he was the main force behind the media deal, at the trial he kept saying he did not know all the details, the prosecutor said.

He also demanded the court should confiscate the funds involved in the KMT transaction. The new owners of the three companies were all party supporters who had benefited from the deal at the expense of the KMT, making the party lose NT$7.2 billion (US$258.73 million), the report said.