The Taipei District Court on Friday ruled that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) must compensate 17 Chinese nationals arrested in China for spying for the KMT in the late 1980s.
The District Court ruled that the KMT must pay a total of US$2.8 million in compensation. The KMT said it would appeal the case to the High Court.
According to the ruling, a Chinese man living in Japan surnamed Tang (唐) visited the KMT branch in Japan in 1987, saying he would like to carry out missions for the KMT.
The ruling said Tang was a Chinese government engineer stationed in Iraq, adding that Tang told KMT officials he could recruit 100 Chinese people to spy for the KMT.
The complainants — a Chinese man surnamed Wang (王) and 16 other Chinese people — told the court they were recruited by Tang in 1989.
The KMT had agreed that the spies “would be given hefty compensation in the event of accidents,” the complainants told the court.
The complainants alleged that because the KMT changed its policy, it leaked their names and activities to Chinese authorities, leading to the arrest of nearly 100 of the spies in Beijing and Shanghai after the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre. The 17 complainants were given jail terms of between three and 18 years by Chinese courts.
The ruling said that after finishing their prison terms, the 17, who asked the KMT to compensate them but were rejected, filed a joint suit with the Taipei District Court against the KMT.
They requested the party to compensate them each US$30,000 for each year of their jail terms, a total of more than US$6 million for all 17.
The KMT initially denied that it had hired the people.
The court said the complainants had shown letters written to them by then-KMT Mainland Affairs Department officials Lin Fong-cheng (林豐正) and Chang Jung-kung (張榮恭) in 2005, proving the existence of the intelligence work. The ruling added that according to confidential KMT documents seized by the court, the party documented that it had recruited the Chinese spies.
The court rejected the KMT’s -arguments that the agents were working for the Taiwanese government and therefore the compensation should come from state coffers.
The ruling declared that the KMT should take responsibility in the case and should pay a total of US$2.8 million for all 17 complainants.
Last month, a Taiwanese army major general was arrested on charges of spying for China, while a retired local agent alleged that at least 10 Chinese moles are believed to have infiltrated Taiwan’s security units.
Additional reporting by AFP
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