Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chai Trong-rong (蔡同榮) was sentenced to six months in jail by the Taipei District Court on Tuesday in a slander case concerning Chai’s accusation that former National Security Council secretary-general Su Chi (蘇起) had provided China with maritime research on the waters around Taiwan.
Calling the sentence unreasonable, Chai said he would appeal the case to the Taiwan High Court and requested the High Court to review the council’s classified records in secret hearings.
Su thanked the court for clearing his name.
In its ruling, the district court said Chai’s sentence could be commuted to a fine.
However, as it put him on a two-year probation, the court said that if Chai did not break the law during that period, he would not have to serve time in jail or pay the fine.
The ruling, which called Chai’s allegations “groundless,” also ordered him to publish an apology in the Chinese-language newspaper the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper).
The ruling said Chai told the Liberty Times on Oct. 18 that Su had asked the Ministry of the Interior to provide maritime research on the waters around Taiwan to China.
Chai alleged that Su gave the Chinese government the results of maritime research conducted by the ministry on Taiwan’s seabed and reefs, including classified information.
According to Chai’s allegations, Su had asked Major General Mao Hui-ming (毛惠民), one of his aides at the council, to order the ministry to provide data on maritime research to Beijing.
Chai told the court his information came from former deputy minister of national defense Michael Tsai (蔡明憲), who told him that Lee Chao-shing (李昭興), an academic on the maritime research team, had visited China.
The court said Tsai denied telling Chai that the research team provided the information to China. For his part, Lee, who was called into court as a witness, said Taiwan and China did not exchange any information on the maritime environment.
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
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