The Supreme Court yesterday upheld a guilty verdict for former senior military intelligence officer Lo Chi-cheng (羅奇正), handing down an 18-year prison term on espionage charges for compromising national security and spying for China.
Lo, then a senior member of the Ministry of National Defense’s Military Intelligence Bureau, was arrested in Taipei in October 2010.
His case had previously been handled by the Military High Court, which in April 2011 handed down a life sentence plus 27 years for breaches of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法) and the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例).
The Supreme Court’s decision yesterday was final and cannot be appealed.
It was reported as a “heavy punishment,” upholding the Taiwan High Court’s second-round conviction in September last year, which imposed an 18-year prison term and deprivation of civil rights for six years.
However, critics said that yesterday’s ruling was too lenient for the disgraced intelligence officer, as it was effectively a reduced sentence from the original life term.
The Supreme Court said it upheld the second-round ruling because “Lo has displayed good behavior” since his arrest and had confessed to espionage activities.
As a result, Lo was granted a reduced sentence and escaped the more severe punishment of life in prison, it said.
Lo was reportedly an important bureau figure, who ran a spy network in China and was also in charge of gathering intelligence and top-level classified materials on the Chinese military and government.
However, authorities suspected he sold information to Beijing, including names and espionage activities of bureau agents in China, along with other sensitive military materials.
Yesterday’s decision included the confiscation of US$125,000 and HK$10.5 million (US$1.36 million) from Lo, which were determined as the total payments by Chinese handlers to Lo.
In 2003, Lo recruited Taiwanese businessman Lo Pin (羅彬), who was based in China, to collect intelligence and other information, the Military High Court said in its 2011 ruling.
In July 2006, Lo Pin was exposed and arrested by Chinese security operatives, at which time Beijing asked him to “redeem himself through good service,” the Military High Court said.
Lo Pin persuaded Colonel Lo Chi-cheng to work for China and pass on military intelligence materials to Chinese handlers, it said.
The Military High Court statement indicated that Colonel Lo began to work as a double agent from January 2007 at the latest.
From 2007 to 2010, Lo Pin delivered classified materials leaked by Lo Chi-cheng and gave them to Chinese handlers in Hong Kong, who gave false intelligence to be passed on to Taiwan in return, it said.
After the Military High Court’s ruling in 2011, Lo Chi-cheng’s case was transferred to the civil justice system under a series of military reforms in 2013, due to mounting public pressure following the death of corporal Hung Chung-chiu (洪仲丘) after his detention at an army base in Taoyuan County.
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