The Supreme Court yesterday upheld a 20-year prison sentence for retired air force colonel Liu Sheng-shu (劉聖恕) for operating a spy network in which six military officers were also charged with spying for China in exchange for monetary rewards.
The 20-year sentence is the heaviest punishment in recent years for military officers found guilty of spying for China.
An investigation found that Liu worked to recruit military personnel to operate a spy network for eight years, and received NT$16.7 million (US$516,229) in payment from China. He was convicted of breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法) and the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法).
Photo: Taipei Times
Liu retired from military service in 2013, and later joined a Taiwanese firm in China. He was recruited by Chinese intelligence officers to obtain files on people working in the Taiwanese military and government agencies, investigators said.
Liu returned to Taiwan under instruction to recruit fellow officers in the air force and other service branches. He had a business friend, surnamed Lin (林), register a shell company in Kaohsiung to serve as a channel for his Chinese handlers to send him money as rewards for obtaining classified material on Taiwan’s national defense and weapons deployment, investigators said.
Liu recruited air force officer Sun Wei (孫緯), a lieutenant colonel, and Sun’s wife, Liu Yun-ya (劉芸雅), an air force major.
The couple obtained classified documents and reports from their units, as well as sourced materials from fellow officers, which they turned over to Liu, the court ruling said.
Sun retired from service in 2019, while his wife was still serving in the air force when the investigation started.
Both continued to use their circle of friends and fellow officers to obtain classified materials, and received millions of New Taiwan dollars from Liu as reward over the years.
Liu also succeeded in recruiting three other officers, all with the rank of major, who were in active service at the time. Two of them — Gong Chien-yu (龔健宇) and Teng Chih-yu (鄧至佑) — handed over three documents and one respectively, while a third officer was acquitted in last year’s second ruling on the case.
Money transfer records and receipts showed that Liu paid between NT$100,000 and NT$200,000 per classified document or military reports which he passed on to his Chinese handlers.
Gong and Teng admitted guilt and were sentenced to three years and six months, and two years respectively.
Liu and the Sun couple refused to admit guilt. They said the documents were false and had no value.
However, military officials examined them and said they were authentic, highly classified materials, resulting in the High Court last year meting out heavy punishments.
Aside from the 20-year sentence, the court confiscated the NT$16.7 million in illicit gains that Liu made from spying.
Sun was sentenced to 19 years and six months in prison, while his wife received 20 years and six months, as she remained in active service at the time.
While the Supreme Court upheld the guilty verdicts and prison terms for Liu and the couple, it agreed with the argument of the defense for the couple raising doubts about some evidence and ordered the lower court to re-examine some of the charges against them.
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