TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Kao Hung-an (高虹安) will resume work as mayor of Hsinchu City on Thursday after a court found her not guilty of corruption, though she lost a separate plagiarism case.
The former Taiwan People’s Party politician saw the Taiwan High Court on Tuesday overturn a 2024 corruption conviction that had led to her suspension as mayor. Instead, the court sentenced her to six months in prison for forgery, a term that can be commuted to a fine, with further appeals still possible.
Kao told reporters Wednesday she had received a letter from the Ministry of the Interior allowing her reinstatement as mayor, per CNA. She said she would return to work at the city government Thursday morning.
However, in a separate case, the Intellectual Property and Commercial Court ruled against Kao. She will have to pay the Institute for Information Industry NT$400,000 (US$12,700) and have the essential part of the verdict published in two media outlets for one day, UDN reported.
The court ruled that Kao had not received permission to use passages from two magazine pieces she wrote for the institute in her doctoral thesis for the University of Cincinnati. Appeals against the ruling are still possible.
