Taipei prosecutors today indicted four former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members for espionage, seeking a heavy 18-and-a-half-year sentence for former councilor assistant Huang Chu-jing (黃取榮).
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office has been investigating allegations that four DPP members and staffers — including Huang, a former assistant to New Taipei City Councilor Lee Yu-tien (李余典) — had engaged in spy networks and leaked sensitive information to Chinese intelligence agents.
The office also indicted Ho Jen-chieh (何仁傑), a former assistant to then-minister of foreign affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮); Chiu Shih-yuan (邱世元), the former deputy director of the DPP’s Taiwan Foundation for Democracy’ and former Presidential Office consultant Wu Shang-yu (吳尚雨).
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
The four were indicted for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法) by providing government secrets to China, leaking and relaying sensitive information under the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法) and money laundering under the Money Laundering Control Act (洗錢防制法).
Prosecutors are seeking a minimum sentence of nine years for Ho, a combined eight years for Chiu and at least five years for Wu.
They requested a heavier sentencing for Huang of 18 years, six months, to include a minimum of nine years and eight years on two counts of leaking classified information, plus one-and-a-half years for money laundering.
The cases are to be transferred to the Taipei District Court.
Meanwhile, the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office also indicted Huang today under the National Security Act for his alleged role in establishing extensive espionage networks.
The case is to be tried in the Taiwan High Court.
Investigators believe that Huang was recruited by Chinese intelligence agents while conducting business in China in 2017.
He then allegedly recruited Chiu to the operation, with Huang and Chiu allegedly earning NT$6.08 million (US$203,107) and NT$2.22 million respectively as compensation, prosecutors said.
Huang and Chiu allegedly approached Wu Shang-yu and Ho to assist in leaking classified information about the president and vice president’s visits to diplomatic nations, they said.
On Feb. 18, prosecutors searched the offices and residences of Huang and Chiu, detaining both and holding them incommunicado the following day.
Later that month, Wu Shang-yu was dismissed from his post, while prosecutors brought him in for questioning and searched his office and residence before detaining him incommunicado on Feb. 24.
Ho was then also detained and held incommunicado on April 12 following a search operation.
Sheng Chu-ying (盛礎纓) — a former assistant to several DPP lawmakers, including former legislative speaker You Si-kun (游錫堃) — is also suspected of leaking classified information to Chinese intelligence agents in exchange for cash and cryptocurrency.
The case is to be handled separately.
Sheng was questioned by prosecutors in April and released on bail of NT$200,000 with electronic monitoring.
All five were expelled from the DPP last month.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
The Taipei City Reserve Command yesterday initiated its first-ever 14-day recall of some of the city’s civilian service reservists, who are to undergo additional training on top of refresher courses. The command said that it rented sites in Neihu District (內湖), including the Taipei Tennis Center, for the duration of the camp to optimize tactical positioning and accommodate the size of the battalion of reservists. A battalion is made up of four companies of more than 200 reservists each, it said. Aside from shooting drills at a range in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), the remainder of the training would be at
RSS