TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A lawyer representing a person involved in a high-profile plagiarism scandal last year said they are considering pressing charges against the person's thesis advisor, who is a former intelligence chief.

Former Hsinchu Mayor Lin Chih-chien (林智堅), who had two master’s degrees revoked because of plagiarism, on Tuesday (Feb. 14) admitted "drawbacks" and "not working hard enough for his studies" in a Facebook post and hoped the controversies would come to an end after withdrawing an appeal against the ruling by National Taiwan University (NTU) and not pursuing an appeal against the Chung Hua Univesity's ruling.

As Lin tried to step away from the unwanted spotlight surrounding the plagiarism row, his NTU thesis advisor, Chen Ming-tung (陳明通), seemingly did not want to let it go.

Chen was replaced as head of the National Security Bureau in a cabinet reshuffle in late January. The controversial intelligence chief was in hot water last year after two of his students at NTU were disqualified over plagiarism investigations and for his inappropriate comments and his unreserved support for Lin.

The relentless support was, once again, displayed following Lin's Tuesday post, which showed remorse for his master's thesis and announced his decision to take a step back from politics to spend more time with his family.

Chen issued a statement the same day which continued to claim Lin's innocence, saying it was the alleged victim, Yu Cheng-huang (余正煌), who sought advice for completing a thesis from Chen in 2016, committing plagiarism by stealing the ideas of Lin's proposed thesis.

In response, Yu, who was said to be working for the Investigation Bureau's Hsinchu Branch, expressed his anger over Chen's statement through his lawyer, describing it as "false" and "shameless." "We will have a discussion with Yu and are likely to press charges against Chen in the near future," Yu's lawyer said.

In early January, Yu accused Chen of bullying him after Yu accused Lin of plagiarism last year.