Taipei prosecutors announced yesterday they would not indict former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) over charges that he leaked national secrets by disclosing details about the Presidential Office’s underground tunnel.
Since such information had previously been made public by a former security chief, it was no longer considered a national secret, prosecutors said.
According to prosecutors, Chen attended a hearing on Oct. 8, 2009, at the Taiwan High Court, during which he gave details to the court about the Presidential Office’s underground tunnel connecting a residence of former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and his wife Soong Mei-ling (宋美齡) in Shilin District (士林) with the military’s Hengshan Headquarters (衡山指揮所), where a helicopter would be on standby in case of emergency.
Chen added that there’s a second underground tunnel connecting the Presidential Office and the Ministry of National Defense, where helicopters would also be on standby on the top of the ministry’s building, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors said Chen, who had been detained during his corruption trials, was at the time trying to express to the court that he, despite having more knowledge than other people about escape channels, had no intention of fleeing the country if he was released on bail.
The Special Investigation Panel (SIP) prosecutors, who sat in on the hearing at the time, believed Chen might have violated the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法) by making the information public and immediately asked Taipei prosecutors to look into it.
Taipei prosecutors said Peng Tzu-wen (彭子文), former director of the National Security Bureau’s Special Service Center, was found guilty by the Taiwan High Court of leaking national secrets to the media in September 2007.
The Taiwan High Court found Peng guilty of violating the Classified National Security Information Protection Act and sentenced him to two years in jail, although the sentence was suspended for four years.
Peng said on television that the Presidential Office and defense ministry underground tunnels would be open for the Double Ten National Day and that two helicopters would be on standby at military airports in Taipei in case of an emergency.
The Taipei prosecutors said since those classified information had been leaked by Peng, they were no longer regarded as classified information.
In addition, prosecutors said, as a defendant, Chen used his right to defend himself in court to elaborate on why he would not flee the country, so he was deemed to have no intention of purposely leaking national secrets.
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