The Supreme Administrative Court has upheld a ruling that a retired military intelligence officer must return pension payments totaling about NT$1.66 million (US$53,528) after being convicted of leaking military secrets to an intermediary who passed them on to China.
The verdict against the retired lieutenant colonel, surnamed Chu (朱), cannot be appealed, the supreme court said on Nov. 24 after a review of the case’s ruling, which had been handed down by a lower administrative court.
Chu had been issued a notice by the Public Service Pension Fund Management Board to return NT$1.66 million in pension payments he received from 2015 to 2020 after a court in January 2020 found him guilty of passing classified military information to a middleman, who then passed them to authorities in China.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
He was sentenced to three years and six months in prison, and was released on probation in January this year.
After his release, Chu filed a request with the pension board to reverse the decision on repayment, which was dismissed, prompting him to file an administrative litigation case with the Taipei High Administrative Court.
In its ruling, the Taipei administrative court said due to Chu’s conviction under the Criminal Code of the Armed Forces, his eligibility for a pension had been voided, a ruling that Chu then appealed to the Supreme Administrative Court.
Chu’s trial began after he was found to have passed sensitive military information to Lin Han (林翰) between December 2013 and July 2014 while serving as an active intelligence officer before his retirement in 2015.
Lin, a retired military officer, had been recruited by another retired Taiwanese officer named Wang Tsung-wu (王宗武), who had been recruiting spies for China and helping identify Taiwanese spies in that country.
According to prosecutors at the time, Lin and Wang were former Military Intelligence Bureau officers. Wang worked undercover for Taiwan’s government in China for four or five years, but switched allegiance and was recruited by the Chinese in 2013.
The two men told investigators they gave information about Taiwanese operatives to China, took cash payments and were treated to overseas trips.
In 2017, Wang was found guilty of spying and sentenced to 18 years in prison for espionage, while Lin received six years.
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