Former legislator Lo Chih-ming (羅志明) has been found not guilty of attempting to recruit spies for China in the final ruling, after the Supreme Court rejected an appeal by prosecutors to retry the case.
However, the court also ordered a partial retrial of for retired rear admiral Hsia Fu-hsiang (夏復翔) in the same case.
Prosecutors had appealed a High Court decision in April aquitting Lo — a former Taiwan Solidarity Union lawmaker — and Hsia on charges of contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法).
Photo: Taipei Times
The two were accused of attempting to create a spy network for China, with prosecutors citing Lo’s connection with a former Chinese People’s Liberation Army officer named Li Ying (李鷹).
Prosecutors said that Lo recruited Hsia, then president of the Naval Academy’s Alumni Association, to help organize 13 group tours for retired military officers to attend events in China from 2014 to 2018.
They said that the groups met with high-ranking Chinese officials, showing that the events they attended were not merely nonpolitical banquets.
In the first ruling in July last year, the Kaohsiung District Court acquitted Lo due to insufficient evidence, but handed Hsia a five-month sentence for attempting to form a spy network.
The Supreme Court in its decision this week aquitted Lo of all charges and Hsia of most charges.
However, it ordered a retrial of the charge against Hsia for attempting to create a spy ring.
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