The Ministry of Justice has drafted an amendment to the Counter-Terrorism Financing Act (資恐防制法) that would list threats and aggressive behavior toward critical national infrastructure, major facilities or core systems as acts of terrorism.
The ministry yesterday said the current law is inapplicable to certain proliferation financing cases in Taiwan.
It made major amendments to the act, expanding it from 15 articles to 24 articles, the ministry said.
Photo courtesy of Citizen of the Earth, Taiwan
A definition for terrorism financing and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction was added to the drafted amendment, it said.
Terrorism financing is defined as providing property, property interests or financial services to people who engage in terrorist activities.
Terrorist activities are defined as intent to cause loss of life, severe injuries, or significant economic or property damage, and threatening the public, or coercing government agencies, foreign government agencies or intergovernmental organizations.
The ministry said threats and aggressive behavior toward critical national infrastructure, major facilities or core systems might cause great damage, and affect national and social security.
Therefore, it has included threats to the public and coercion to government agencies, foreign government agencies or intergovernmental organizations into the list of terrorists activities, it said.
It means that contravening the Electricity Act (電業法), Natural Gas Enterprise Act (天然氣事業法), Petroleum Administration Act (石油管理法), Water Supply Act (自來水法), Railway Act (鐵路法) and Mass Rapid Transit Act (大眾捷運法) might be treated as terrorist activities, the ministry said.
According to the drafted amendment, perpetrators who directly or indirectly collect or provide property or property interests for an individual, a legal person or a group engaged in terrorist activities could face imprisonment of six months to five years and a fine of no more than NT$5 million (US$155,904).
In addition, as petroleum smuggling activities from Taiwan to North Korea have been detected several times in the past few years, the drafted amendment also imposes punishment on perpetrators who conceal trading information, turn off their vessel’s automatic identification system without reason, or damage, alter or hide their vessel name.
Perpetrators could face up to three years of imprisonment or detention or a penalty of no more than NT$600,000, according to the draft amendment.
Taiwanese who contravene this article outside of the nation’s territory could also face punishment, no matter whether the country where the crime takes place has such laws, the draft said.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS