Former Naval Education, Training and Doctrine Command general division commander Chang Pei-ning (張培凝) is to serve three years and 10 months in prison for setting up a spy ring for China after the Supreme Court denied his appeal, Chinese-language media reported yesterday.
Chang denied the charges in the first trial, but the Kaohsiung District Court rejected his defense, convicting him of contraventions of the National Security Act (國家安全法).
The Kaohsiung branch of the High Court in the second trial after Chang appealed the initial ruling upheld the sentence from the first trial of three years and 10 months.
Photo: Chang Wen-chuan, Taipei Times
The Supreme Court found the sentence not improper.
Chang can no longer appeal.
Chang has filed a lawsuit against the Republic of China Navy Command after it ordered him to return NT$7.72 million (US$233,317) in retirement pay.
The Taipei High Administrative Court has ruled against him in the lawsuit, although he can appeal the decision.
Chang in 2006 was recruited by Hong Kong businessman Hsieh Hsi-chang (謝錫璋) to develop an espionage cell in Taiwan, prosecutors said.
Cheng introduced Colonel Ho Chung-chi (何忠枝), head of the Navy Command Headquarters planning division, and Ho’s wife, Chang Hsiu-yun (莊秀雲), to Hsieh in 2008, prosecutors said.
The couple were bribed with banquets and an all-expenses-paid trip to Thailand, prosecutors said.
Both pled guilty in the first trial, with Ho sentenced to 10 months and Chang to three months, with their failure to recruit any spies for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) a mitigating factor.
Ho appealed, but the High Court handed him a four-year suspended sentence in the second trial.
Separately, three staff members of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) have been detained without visitation rights and are being investigated on suspicion of spying for the CCP, a source with knowledge of the matter said on Thursday.
Their detention comes as several DPP members have been accused of contravening the National Security Act.
The Chinese-language Mirror Media named Presidential Office consultant Wu Shang-yu (吳尚雨), former DPP staff member Chiu Shih-yuan (邱世元) and councilor assistant Huang Chu-jing (黃取榮) as the suspects.
Chiu is a former vice president of the DPP’s Taiwan Institute of Democracy, while Huang is an assistant to New Taipei City Councilor Lee Yu-tien (李余典).
The case is being investigated by the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office, which questioned the three suspects.
Due to the seriousness of the allegations and the risk of collusion, prosecutors requested that they be detained without visitation rights, which was granted, the report said.
The prosecutors’ office said that the investigation is ongoing and it would not comment on the report.
However, a source said that several members of the DPP have been involved in national security breaches, including leaking sensitive information such as travel itineraries of President William Lai (賴清德).
Those people were detained in the middle of February and prosecutors are investigating the extent of the alleged breaches, the source said.
The investigation might be expanded, the source added.
Sheng Chu-ying (盛礎纓), an assistant to former legislative speaker You Si-kun, was released on bail amid an investigation into allegations that he was recruited by Chinese intelligence agents during a trip to China, Chinese-language media reported on Wednesday.
Sheng is accused of exchanging sensitive legislative information for cash and cryptocurrency beginning in 2019.
The office is continuing investigations into Sheng, who has been barred from leaving the country.
Additional reporting by Chen Cheng-yu
Taiwanese Olympic badminton men’s doubles gold medalist Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) and his new partner, Chiu Hsiang-chieh (邱相榤), clinched the men’s doubles title at the Yonex Taipei Open yesterday, becoming the second Taiwanese team to win a title in the tournament. Ranked 19th in the world, the Taiwanese duo defeated Kang Min-hyuk and Ki Dong-ju of South Korea 21-18, 21-15 in a pulsating 43-minute final to clinch their first doubles title after teaming up last year. Wang, the men’s doubles gold medalist at the 2020 and 2024 Olympics, partnered with Chiu in August last year after the retirement of his teammate Lee Yang
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
The government is considering polices to increase rental subsidies for people living in social housing who get married and have children, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. During an interview with the Plain Law Movement (法律白話文) podcast, Cho said that housing prices cannot be brought down overnight without affecting banks and mortgages. Therefore, the government is focusing on providing more aid for young people by taking 3 to 5 percent of urban renewal projects and zone expropriations and using that land for social housing, he said. Single people living in social housing who get married and become parents could obtain 50 percent more
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
RSS