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
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