Military prosecutors yesterday indicted Lo Hsien-che (羅賢哲), former head of communications and electronic information at the army command headquarters, on suspicion of providing military secrets to China, saying they would seek a sentence of life in prison.
Lo, at the center of the nation’s biggest espionage case in 50 years, has been detained since Jan. 25.
The Ministry of National Defense said in a statement that Lo was charged in accordance with military law with spying for the enemy, delivering military secrets to the enemy and receiving bribes.
Photo: CNA
The statement alleged that Lo was recruited by Chinese agents in 2004 and is suspected of collecting military secrets and delivering confidential information to Beijing.
The statement said that Lo, as a high-ranking military official who had been cultivated by the ministry and his country, should have been loyal and served his country. Instead, Lo’s actions seriously jeopardized national interests, national security as well as the reputation and morale of the military, it said.
The statement added that Lo could have been recommended for the death penalty, but given that he had admitted his actions during the investigation and that he returned bribes he took from China, military prosecutors requested life imprisonment instead.
The statement did not mention whether the 51-year-old one-star general had had access to a joint Taiwan-US military communications project, called Po Sheng, and whether he had leaked confidential information about the project.
Local media previously alleged Lo was lured by sex and money offered by a female Chinese agent while he was stationed in Thailand between 2002 and 2005.
The Chinese-language United Evening News yesterday cited anonymous military sources as alleging that Lo frequented prostitutes when he was in Thailand and that Chinese agents blackmailed him after they had filmed him.
The ministry yesterday declined to comment on the sex allegations against Lo.
CHAOS: Iranians took to the streets playing celebratory music after reports of Khamenei’s death on Saturday, while mourners also gathered in Tehran yesterday Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a major attack on Iran launched by Israel and the US, throwing the future of the Islamic republic into doubt and raising the risk of regional instability. Iranian state television and the state-run IRNA news agency announced the 86-year-old’s death early yesterday. US President Donald Trump said it gave Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back” their country. The announcements came after a joint US and Israeli aerial bombardment that targeted Iranian military and governmental sites. Trump said the “heavy and pinpoint bombing” would continue through the week or as long
An Emirates flight from Dubai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday afternoon, the first service of the airline since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday. Flight EK366 took off from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 3:51am yesterday and landed at 4:02pm before taxiing to the airport’s D6 gate at Terminal 2 at 4:08pm, data from the airport and FlightAware, a global flight tracking site, showed. Of the 501 passengers on the flight, 275 were Taiwanese, including 96 group tour travelers, the data showed. Tourism Administration Deputy Director-General Huang He-ting (黃荷婷) greeted Taiwanese passengers at the airport and
TRUST: The KMT said it respected the US’ timing and considerations, and hoped it would continue to honor its commitments to helping Taiwan bolster its defenses and deterrence US President Donald Trump is delaying a multibillion-dollar arms sale to Taiwan to ensure his visit to Beijing is successful, a New York Times report said. The weapons sales package has stalled in the US Department of State, the report said, citing US officials it did not identify. The White House has told agencies not to push forward ahead of Trump’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), it said. The two last month held a phone call to discuss trade and geopolitical flashpoints ahead of the summit. Xi raised the Taiwan issue and urged the US to handle arms sales to
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday said that it had confirmed on Saturday night with its liquefied natural gas (LNG) and crude oil suppliers that shipments are proceeding as scheduled and that domestic supplies remain unaffected. The CPC yesterday announced the gasoline and diesel prices will rise by NT$0.2 and NT$0.4 per liter, respectively, starting Monday, citing Middle East tensions and blizzards in the eastern United States. CPC also iterated it has been reducing the proportion of crude oil imports from the Middle East and diversifying its supply sources in the past few years in response to geopolitical risks, expanding
RSS