The Control Yuan yesterday impeached an ex-captain and the current captain of a navy patrol vessel for failing to enforce military regulations, after a crew member was charged with leaking military secrets.
Ex-captain Jen Wen-chung (任文中) and Captain Fang Chang-tung (方長桐) of the navy's Hsin Chiang vessel (新江艦) were impeached after prosecutors filed charges against Petty Officer First Class Liu Yueh-lung (劉岳龍), who served as a electronic code decoder and who was alleged in June to have been a spy for Beijing.
According to Control Yuan member Huang Huang-shien (
Liu was found to have brought a personal computer and a digital camera on the vessel without getting permission from the unit. He was also charged with neglecting to declare the items during a routine ship embarkation inspection, or informing officials that he was using the devices to record sensitive military information.
According to the investigation report released by the Control Yuan yesterday, Liu had recorded top-secret combat information and highly confidential material related to the navy's communication code.
Liu is alleged to have stolen the information between July and December 2000.
He is also suspected of giving the information to his father, Liu Chen-kuo (劉禎國), who prosecutors say handed it over to Chinese personnel. Liu and his father are in the custody of prosecutors.
The navy had announced in early June that it changed its communication codes immediately after Liu was arrested, and claimed that the leak of the codes would not harm the navy.
Huang Chin-jenn (黃勤鎮), another Control Yuan member, said, "The impeachment is aimed at warning military personnel to follow military regulations to the letter. Such cases could be avoided if the presiding officers were more attentive to their duties."
"We want to ensure that similar cases do not happen again," Huang Chin-jenn said. He added that the military is currently monitoring a number of cases, but he declined to give further details.
Liu Chen-kuo graduated from the Army Academy and served as an army pilot until he retired in 1988. He then went to China for business purposes but was arrested by the Chinese police and, according to Taiwan's Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau, was detained for two years on charges of people smuggling, forging documents and illegally trading in proscribed antiques.
Chinese secret service agents invited him to work as a spy in exchange for his release and, prosecutors say that his son, Liu Yueh-lung has been providing him with classified information since 2000.
The case is under investigation by both military prosecutors and the Taiwan High Court Prosecutors' Office.
The two captains will be sent to the Judicial Yuan's Committee for the Discipline of Public Functionaries, which will decide on the disciplinary action to be taken against the two.
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