The number of criminal cases involving military personnel has increased fivefold in the past 10 years, with national security contraventions having a significant impact, the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday.
Compulsory military service was returned to one year for all men born after Jan. 1, 2005, starting on Jan. 1 last year.
The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office anticipates this would cause an increase in military criminal cases that could influence national security.
Photo: Taipei Times
The office released a special report on prosecution strategies last month.
Data compiled by the High Prosecutors’ Office showed that there were 28,837 criminal cases involving 41,520 military personnel from 2014 to last year, with the number increasing annually, the High Prosecutors’ Office said.
There were 867 cases involving 1,096 people in 2014 and 4,743 cases involving 6,753 people last year, a fivefold increase in 10 years, the data showed.
Of those cases, 55.6 percent involved fraud, drugs, assault, money laundering or gambling, 35 percent involved sexual assault or murder, and 9.4 percent involved transgressions of military duties.
The prosecution rate was highest for those who transgressed their duties, contravening the Anti-Corruption Act (犯貪污治罪條例), at 59 percent, the office said.
The prosecution rate for contraventions of the National Security Act (國家安全法) was 46.7 percent, it added.
Those cases included spying on state secrets, developing organizations and filming psychological warfare videos, it said.
Although the number of those cases is not high, they had significant and far-reaching impact, it added.
China’s infiltration tactics have shifted from targeting senior officers to recruiting ordinary soldiers and even the public, the office said.
The office met with national security and military agencies to discuss how to respond to growing criminal cases in the military, it said.
They developed nine major strategies, including clearly defining military discipline violations, strengthening communication between prosecutors and military authorities, handling military desertion cases better and assisting victims in filing complaints, the office said.
A strong military can ensure a stable nation, the office said.
If prosecutors can handle military criminal cases with strictness and efficiency, it would prevent similar crimes from reoccurring, it said.
This would uphold military discipline and leadership, safeguarding national security, it added.
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