Taiwan plans to reinstate military judges to hear Chinese espionage cases and other offenses involving Taiwanese service members, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday.
There would be a review and legal amendments “to reinstate the military trial system,” he told reporters after a national security meeting.
“Military judges will return to the front line,” Lai said.
Photo: CNA
Military judges would work “alongside prosecutorial and judicial agencies to handle criminal cases involving active-duty military personnel accused of treason, aiding the enemy, leaking classified information, dereliction of duty, insubordination and other military offenses,” he said.
The number of people prosecuted for spying for Beijing has risen sharply, with retired and serving members of the military the main targets of Chinese infiltration efforts, official figures show.
The National Security Bureau previously said that 64 people were prosecuted for Chinese espionage last year, compared with 48 in 2023 and 10 in 2022.
Civil courts have received more than 300 new military cases annually over the past three years, Judicial Yuan data showed.
Taiwan disbanded the military court system after the death of a young corporal in 2013.
Hung Chung-chiu (洪仲丘) died of heatstroke on July 4, 2013, just three days before the end of his compulsory year-long military service.
The changes would apply to crimes committed by serving members of the military during peacetime.
They would have to be approved by the opposition-controlled legislature, said Ryan Chen (陳彥?), a lawyer and executive committee member of the Judicial Reform Foundation.
Previous concerns about the military trial system included the lack of independence of judges and prosecutors, and transparency of the judicial process, the National Human Rights Museum says on its Web site.
Former New Power Party legislator Hung Tzu-yung (洪慈庸), who is the sister of the late conscript, expressed concern about the potential for abuse.
“The Code of Court Martial Procedure [軍事審判法] was revised to end the harmful influence of military trials during the authoritarian period,” she said. “Now that President Lai wants to conditionally restart [military trials] against ‘foreign hostile forces,’ the supporting measures must be sufficient.”
Lai defended the reinstatement of military judges and other measures to counter Chinese infiltration, citing cases of Taiwanese individuals forming “treasonous organizations to aid China’s armed forces buildup” within Taiwan.
“China has used democratic Taiwan’s freedom and diverse openness to absorb gangsters, media personnel, commentators, political parties, and even active and retired military and police personnel to carry out activities such as division, destruction and subversion amongst us,” Lai said.
“We have no choice but to take more proactive actions,” he added.
At a separate news conference yesterday, the Ministry of National Defense acknowledged military courts’ checkered history and vowed to conduct a comprehensive review to ensure due process is upheld.
Officers who commit military-related offenses would be tried in military courts, while those accused of general criminal offenses would fall under the jurisdiction of civilian courts, the ministry said.
Active-duty military officers who commit offenses listed in Part 2 of the Criminal Code of the Armed Forces (陸海空軍刑法), such as offenses against allegiance to the nation, would face military trials, while crimes listed in Part 3 of the code would be handled by the judiciary, the ministry said.
The ministry also said it would establish military courts and prosecutors’ offices in appropriate regions in accordance with the Organization Act of the Ministry of National Defense (國防部組織法).
Organizational acts would be written to regulate the new authorities and uphold their independence, it added.
It also vowed to create a personnel management act to regulate the appointments, dismissals, promotions, transfers and evaluations of military judges based on the Judges Act (法官法) to ensure fairness and independence.
Prospective military judges should have military experience, as the cases they handle would revolve around military affairs, it added.
The ministry is to comprehensively examine and amend the Military Trial Act (軍事審判法) in accordance with the principle of fair trials and legitimate legal procedures, while also ensuring human rights, upholding military discipline and safeguarding national security, it said.
The armed forces had made various attempts to train military judges to also serve as prosecutors to ensure tribunals could function during wartime, but these efforts had limited success, the ministry said.
A comprehensive internal review suggested that functioning military tribunals must be maintained during peacetime to ensure they retain the capability to enforce military discipline and protect human rights at war, it added.
PEACE AT LAST? UN experts had warned of threats and attacks ahead of the voting, but after a turbulent period, Bangladesh has seemingly reacted to the result with calm The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) yesterday celebrated a landslide victory in the first elections held since a deadly 2024 uprising, with party leader Tarique Rahman to become prime minister. Bangladesh Election Commission figures showed that the BNP alliance had won 212 seats, compared with 77 for the Islamist-led Jamaat-e-Islami alliance. The US embassy congratulated Rahman and the BNP for a “historic victory,” while India praised Rahman’s “decisive win” in a significant step after recent rocky relations with Bangladesh. China and Pakistan, which grew closer to Bangladesh since the uprising and the souring of ties with India, where ousted Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina
FAST-TRACK: The deal is to be sent to the legislature, but time is of the essence, as Trump had raised tariffs on Seoul when it failed to quickly ratify a similar pact Taiwan and the US on Thursday signed a trade agreement that caps US tariffs on Taiwanese goods at 15 percent and provides preferential market access for US industrial and agricultural exports, including cars, and beef and pork products. The Taiwan-US Agreement on Reciprocal Trade confirms a 15 percent US tariff for Taiwanese goods, and grants Taiwanese semiconductors and related products the most-favorable-treatment under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, the Executive Yuan said. In addition, 2,072 items — representing nearly 20 percent of Taiwan’s total exports to the US — would be exempt from additional tariffs and be subject only to
President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday approved a special pardon exempting a woman in her 80s convicted of killing her disabled son from imprisonment. After carefully reviewing the case, Lai pardoned Lin Liu Lung-tzu (林劉龍子) from the prison sentence while acknowledging her conviction, citing the extreme circumstances she faced, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said in a statement. Under Article 3 of the Amnesty Act (赦免法), the two kinds of pardons are exempting an offender from the execution of a punishment or declaring the punishment to be invalid. Kuo said Lin Liu had spent more than 50 years caring for her son, before
HOLIDAY RUSH: Airport passenger volume is expected to reach a new high, while southbound road traffic would likely peak from Tuesday As Lunar New Year travelers flock overseas, passenger traffic at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport is expected to shatter records, as Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC, 桃園國際機場), Taiwan’s largest aviation hub operator, projected yesterday’s passenger volume to climb to 167,000. The figure comes after a record single-day high of 161,000 passengers on Thursday, and would surpass the previous pre-COVID-19 pandemic Lunar New Year peak of 166,000 passengers in 2019, TIAC said. Long lines could be seen forming as early as 7am yesterday, filling Terminal 1 of the airport almost to capacity, yet security checks took only 10 to 15 minutes. TIAC urged
RSS