The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted four former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members for alleged acts of espionage on behalf of China, requesting an 18-year prison sentence for one of them.
The office in a statement said that it charged Huang Chu-jung (黃取榮) and Chiu Shih-yuan (邱世元) with allegedly divulging or delivering classified national security information to China; disclosing, delivering or transmitting confidential information for official use to China; and money laundering.
Ho Jen-chieh (何仁傑) was charged with two counts of leaking classified information, while Wu Shang-yu (吳尚雨) was charged with divulging or delivering classified national security information to a foreign nation, it said.
Photo: Taipei Times
Huang was also charged by the High Prosecutors’ Office with “developing a criminal organization” for China, the statement said, adding that as that case involves threats to national security and social stability, the High Court has jurisdiction.
Prosecutors requested a heavier sentence for Huang of 18 years and six months, which consists of a minimum of nine years and eight years on two counts of leaking classified information, plus one-and-a-half years for money laundering.
Prosecutors are seeking a minimum sentence of nine years for Ho, a combined eight years for Chiu and at least five years for Wu.
All four are in custody, the statement said.
Huang, who formerly worked as an assistant to New Taipei City Councilor Lee Yu-tien (李余典) of the DPP, was allegedly recruited by Chinese intelligence while conducting business in China in 2017, prosecutors said.
After returning to Taiwan, he allegedly collected confidential information, including details of the president’s and vice president’s visits to allied nations, through Chiu, the former deputy head of the DPP’s Taiwan Institute of Democracy.
Huang and Chiu obtained the information from Wu, a former Presidential Office adviser, and Ho, who was an assistant to National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), who was minister of foreign affairs at the time, prosecutors said.
Huang allegedly passed the confidential information to Chinese intelligence and paid Chiu, Ho and Wu Shang-yu several thousand New Taiwan dollars, they said.
In their sentencing recommendations, prosecutors said that Huang and Chiu had engaged in espionage over an extended period, obtaining confidential information from Ho and Wu Shang-yu in exchange for illicit payments from Chinese intelligence authorities, which constituted serious criminal conduct.
Ho, while a senior adviser on security and foreign affairs, betrayed the nation’s trust by leaking classified information over a prolonged period, posing a serious threat to national security, they added.
Prosecutors considered Wu Shang-yu’s actions serious, as he allegedly cooperated with Chiu and leaked sensitive information.
Huang and Ho denied any wrongdoing during the investigation, while fabricating false information to mislead authorities, they said.
However, Chiu and Wu Shang-yu both confessed.
In a separate case, Sheng Chu-ying (盛礎纓), a former assistant to former legislative speaker You Si-kun (游錫?), has been accused of leaking legislative information to Chinese intelligence.
Sheng has been released on bail and is subject to electronic monitoring. She has not yet been indicted.
All five of the accused were expelled by the DPP last month.
Separately, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office late yesterday afternoon searched the residence and office of Lin Yue-lung (林岳龍), who serves as Taipei City Councilor Wang Hsin-yi’s (王欣儀) assistant and doubles as the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Taipei chapter spokesman, on suspicion that Lin might have also worked as a Chinese mole and contravened the National Security Act (國家安全法).
Lin previously also served as an assistant to KMT legislators Wang Hung-wei (王鴻薇) and Cheng Cheng-chien (鄭正鈐).
At press time last night, Lin was still being questioned.
Additional reporting by Wang Ting-chuan
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