The Taoyuan District Court on Wednesday handed down an eight-month prison sentence to former independent legislative candidate Ma Chih-wei (馬治薇) for selling information about Taiwanese government personnel to two Chinese people.
The court ruled that Ma had contravened the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) by receiving money in exchange for “a large amount of personal contact information” that she had collected.
The proceeds of the crime would also be confiscated in accordance with the law, the court said.
Photo: Yu Jui-jen, Taipei Times
In January, Ma was detained on suspicion of having received NT$1 million (US$30,681) from China to fund her election campaign in exchange for intelligence.
The Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office indicted Ma in March.
Prosecutors requested a 44-month prison sentence and a NT$2 million fine for Ma for contravening the Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法), the National Security Act (國家安全法) and the Personal Data Protection Act.
The indictment alleged that the 40-year-old became acquainted with Chinese individuals “involved in Taiwan’s affairs” during a trip to China in April last year, and the two sides discussed Ma providing political intelligence about Taiwan in exchange for funding.
Ma was a Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) member at the time, even though she ran as an independent in Taoyuan in the Jan. 13 legislative elections.
The TPP expelled her on Jan. 6, a day after she was detained.
Following a preliminary investigation, prosecutors alleged that Ma had received funds in US dollars and tether, a cryptocurrency.
The amount of cryptocurrency that Ma received was equivalent to about NT$1.05 million, prosecutors said.
In exchange for these payments, Ma gave her Chinese handlers nicknamed “Sister Bing” (冰姐) and “Ah-Hau” (阿浩) a list of contacts for central government agencies, as well as business cards for personnel involved in national security, they said.
The court determined that Ma had illegal intent in doing so, and sentenced her to eight months in jail and ordered the confiscation of her illegal gains for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act.
The court also ruled that there was no evidence that Ma had breached national security laws since the information she gave to the Chinese individuals was not confidential.
The court also acquitted Ma of contravening the Anti-Infiltration Act because there was a lack of evidence to prove “Sister Bing” and “Ah-Hau” were affiliated with any foreign hostile force or other political organization, it said.
The Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office said it is considering filing an appeal against the ruling.
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