The Taiwan Supreme Court has upheld a lower court’s sentencing of former legislative aide Chen Wei-jen (陳惟仁) to 10 months in prison for national security offenses by developing a spy network for China, court documents released on Wednesday said.
The Supreme Court’s decision is final.
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office in August 2020 indicted Chen along with another two former legislative aides — Lin Yung-ta (林雍達) and Lee Yi-hsien (李易諴) — for spying and organizing espionage networks in Taiwan to obtain classified materials for China from 2012 to 2016, in contravention of the National Security Act (國家安全法).
Prosecutors dropped the case against Lee after he died in September 2020.
Prosecutors said that Chen and Lin traveled to Macau in 2012, where they met a Chinese intelligence officer identified as Huang Guanlong (黃冠龍), who asked them to set up a spy network in Taiwan and gather information for a Chinese security agency in exchange for cash.
In 2016, Chen and Lee were instructed by Huang to obtain information from the National Police Agency regarding anti-China activities carried out by Falun Gong members in Taiwan.
However, no such information was provided, Taipei prosecutors said.
Between September and October 2016, the three men provided the Chinese intelligence officer with information he requested on the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) National Policy Foundation think tank’s cross-strait forum.
Attempts to obtain sensitive material from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) regarding its presidential election activities also failed because the insiders they tried to recruit refused to cooperate, the indictment said.
In May last year, the Taipei District Court handed Chen a 10-month prison sentence for national security offenses, and another three months for attempted spying and collecting of classified national security information. The three months was commutable to a fine.
For his involvement, Lin received a five-month term, also commutable to a fine, the district court said.
The two were former aides to Chen Shu-hui (陳淑慧), who at the time was a KMT lawmaker and is currently deputy mayor of Chiayi City.
Chen Wei-jen filed an appeal, while Lin did not.
The Taiwan High Court in November last year upheld Chen Wei-jen’s 10-month sentence for national security offenses, but acquitted him on the charge of attempted spying and collecting classified national security information.
He appealed the decision, but the appeal was rejected by the Supreme Court on Feb. 9.
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