TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Former Hsinchu mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) member Kao Hung-an (高虹安) was sentenced to 10 months in prison on Wednesday (Aug. 21) for falsely accusing a US-based professor of defamation.

Kao initially filed a suit against Chen Shih-fen (陳時奮), following a 2021 Facebook post in which Chen said Kao had plagiarised her doctoral research, per CNA. Prosecutors decided not to charge Chen after investigating Kao’s complaint and finding 18 instances where information from another source was duplicated in Kao’s doctoral thesis.

Chen then launched a suit against Kao with the Taipei District Court, claiming Kao had falsely accused him of defamation. The court ruled in favor of Chen and sentenced Kao to 10 months, which can be appealed.

The ruling follows an additional seven year and four month sentence Kao received in late July for a separate corruption charge, which she said she would appeal. Kao received the sentence after she was found guilty of conspiring with staffers to fraudulently claim subsidies from public funds for personal use when she was a legislator.

Kao maintains her innocence, though stepped down from the TPP following the ruling. She was also stripped of the mayoralty when the verdict was announced.