The corruption case against former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je has entered its second-instance appeal, and both sides have brought in more senior legal personnel, increasing the pressure on Ko.

• The High Prosecutors Office has assigned three prosecutors to take over the case, specialising respectively in corruption appeals, major-case investigation and tracing money flows.
• The case covers the Core Pacific City floor-area incentives, political donations, the Mu Ko company and the Zhongwang Foundation, with charges including bribery, profiteering and embezzlement.
• One member of the prosecution team previously handled the leak case involving former president Ma Ying-jeou and the corruption case against Yilan County magistrate Lin Zi-miao, experience closely resembling the disputed points in this case.
• Ko Wen-je, for his part, has brought in Lin Shih-meng, a former division-chief judge at the Kaohsiung District Court, and Kuan Kao-yueh, a former prosecutor, to strengthen his grasp of the courts' reasoning in their rulings and of the prosecution's investigative methods.
• The core of the dispute lies in how the floor-area incentives came about, and whether city government officials pushed them through knowing they were unlawful.

Outlook: The appeal will focus on the flow of funds through the campaign account and the foundation, and prosecutors are expected to press their arguments on the parts of the first-instance sentence they consider too lenient.