The Military High Court yesterday sentenced General Lo Hsien-che (羅賢哲), former head of communications and electronic information at army command headquarters, to life in prison for providing military secrets to China.
The court said Lo violated Article 17 of the Criminal Code of the Armed Forces, which stipulates “conducting intelligence actions for the enemy leads to [the] death sentence or life imprisonment.”
The court said that given that Lo admitted to his actions during the investigation and had returned the money he received from China, the court reduced his sentence to life imprisonment.
The court said Lo on five occasions delivered classified information to Beijing and received payments that may have totaled US$1 million since 2004.
The court said Lo could appeal the ruling with the Military Supreme Court.
Lo’s case was the nation’s biggest espionage case in 50 years.
Lo, who was arrested in January, was stationed in Thailand between 2002 and 2005. He is believed to have been recruited by Chinese agents in a “honey trap” operation in 2004 and thereafter collected military secrets and delivered classified information to Beijing.
Lo’s indictment document said he frequented prostitutes when he was in Thailand and that Chinese agents blackmailed him after they had filmed him.
Fearing the scandal would hurt his military career, Lo began spying for Beijing, it said.
The military and the court have not commented on whether the 51-year-old one-star general had had access to a joint Taiwan-US military communications project, called Po Sheng (“Broad Victory”), and whether he had leaked confidential information about the project.
The military also denied local media reports claiming that Lo sold a scrambler used by Taiwan’s intelligence services to China during his posting in Thailand.
The Chinese-language China Times had reported that investigators found that Lo reported the loss of a scrambler while posted in Thailand, leading the paper to conclude: “It is almost certain that Lo ‘sold’ the scrambler to communist China for a high price.”
The paper said China’s possession of such a device would pose a grave threat to national security.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
‘SAME OLD TRICK’: Even if Beijing resumes individual travel to Taiwan, it would only benefit Chinese tourism companies, the Economic Democracy Union convener said China’s 10 new “incentives” are “sugar-coated poison,” an official said yesterday, adding that Taiwanese businesses see them clearly for what they are, but that Beijing would inevitably find some local collaborators to try to drums up support. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, made the remark ahead of a news conference the General Chamber of Commerce is to hold today. The event, titled “Industry Perspectives on China’s Recent Pro-Taiwan Policies,” is expected to include representatives from industry associations — such as those in travel, hotels, food and agriculture — to request the government cooperate with China’s new measures, people familiar with
RSS