A retired air force captain and six active air force and navy officers were indicted in Kaohsiung on Thursday on charges of spying for China.
All seven were charged with violating the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法) by the High Prosecutors’ Office in Kaohsiung.
Prosecutors and investigators launched a probe in January, detaining a retired air force captain and three active military officers on Jan. 4, while three other active lieutenant commanders were released on bail ranging from NT$100,000 to NT$200,000.
Photo: Pao Chien-hsin, Taipei Times
The detainees included a retired captain surnamed Liu (劉), who is at the center of the investigation, an active commander surnamed Sun (孫), and two lieutenant commanders surnamed Liu (劉) and Kung (龔) respectively.
Following their indictment on Thursday, the court ordered the four individuals to be held incommunicado starting on Friday.
The three others involved in the case remain on bail.
The retired Liu began conducting business in China after leaving the air force in 2013, the investigation found.
He was recruited by China to serve as a spy and, using his military connections, recruit active military officers in the navy and air force to join the spying activities, prosecutors said.
The retired Liu recruited at least six officers into his spy ring and received “rewards” of NT$200,000 to NT$700,000 for each individual he brought into the fold, they said.
The money was channeled through a shell company, and he received bonuses of NT$30,000 to NT$100,000 if his benefactors were supplied with Taiwanese military information, they said.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
RSS