The legislature's Judicial Committee showed its support to law enforcement officers' undercover work by completing a second review of the Statute of Undercover Investigations (臥底偵查法) during a meeting yesterday.
The most significant regulation of the statute is that an undercover law enforcement officer will enjoy immunity from prosecution if he commits crimes during his approved term of undercover work.
"Law enforcement officers' undercover work is extremely dangerous so they need more protection," said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Lawmaker Lai Ching-te (
"The statute will assure them that they will not get into any trouble while they are doing their jobs on the streets," he said.
In Taiwan, "law enforcement officers" include prosecutors, the police, special agents from the National Security Bureau and the Ministry of Justice's Bureau of Investigation and the military police.
While lawmakers were reviewing the statute, the Ministry of National Defense (MND), however, said that the military police should not and will not carry out undercover missions.
"We respect their request but there is as yet no final deal for the MND's proposal," Lai said.
According to the statute, any undercover officer may break the law as long as it does not endanger life or violate social or national interests.
To protect the safety of undercover officers, they are also allowed to refuse to testify in court or during the investigation process, with the approval of the court.
In the meantime, a jail sentence of between one and seven years will be given to those who leak classified information about undercover officers' identity.
A jail sentence of between three and 10 years will be given to people who cause injuries to undercover officers by leaking their identities.
The statute was first submitted to the Legislative Yuan for authorization by the Executive Yuan on July 9. Prior to the committee's review of the statute on Monday, 62 lawmakers have endorsed the statute and completed their first review.
During yesterday's meeting, the statute also earned the endorsement of the committee's 14 members.
Now that the second review of the statute has been completed, the committee will submit the case to the regular legislative meeting for final approval before it becomes law. No confirmed date for the final approval has been given so far.
The statute will require a law enforcement officer wishing to work undercover to obtain the approval of the highest supervisor of the police force, namely the director-general of the National Police Administration.
The director-general will then have to present a proposal for the undercover investigation to the state public prosecutor-general for approval.
Approval will only be granted if it is deemed there is no other way to investigate the crime and that it endangers national security or social order.
The crimes include those associated with corruption, smuggling, narcotics, trading of securities and futures, firearms, money laundering, racketeering, national security and cross-strait affairs.
According to the statute, however, law enforcement officers are not allowed to carry out their undercover missions unless they have collected sufficient evidence to prove that the suspects may have committed crimes which may result in more than five years in jail.
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