A retired rear admiral and a former lawmaker have been detained for allegedly contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法), the Kaohsiung District Court said yesterday, in the latest spying scandal to hit the military’s upper echelons.
Hsia Fu-hsiang (夏復翔), who served as deputy head of the navy’s political warfare department, and former Taiwan Solidarity Union legislator Lo Chih-ming (羅志明) were deemed flight risks and taken into custody yesterday, the court said.
The court reversed a decision allowing bail earlier this month, citing the risk that the duo could collude with witnesses.
Photo: Huang Liang-chieh, Taipei Times
“The defendants arranged witnesses to go to mainland China and [the trips] were very likely linked to promoting unification” with China, it said in a statement without providing further details of the probe.
Lo allegedly recruited Hsia, and the pair used their connections to arrange for retired military officers to visit China as part a bid to develop a spying network in Taiwan.
Their case surfaced shortly after prosecutors launched an investigation into a retired air force colonel suspected of recruiting at least six active-duty officers in the air force and the navy for Beijing in eight years.
There have been a number of cases involving former senior Taiwanese military officials accused of developing spying networks for China in recent years.
A retired major general in the air force earlier this month received a four-year suspended sentence for accepting meals and trips offered by a Hong Kong businessman allegedly acting on behalf of Beijing, after the court said he showed remorse and had no previous criminal record.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
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