The Supreme Court yesterday denied an appeal by retired Military Intelligence Bureau colonel Chang Chao-jan (張超然) and upheld the High Court’s ruling, which sentenced Chang to one-and-a-half years in prison for contravening Article 2 of the National Security Act (國家安全法).
Chang’s affiliate and fellow officer Chou Tian-tzu (周天慈) was given a one year, two months prison sentence, while retired army major general Yue Chih-chung (岳志忠) was given 10 months. Retired bureau colonel Wang Ta-wang (王大旺) was declared not guilty.
The four were indicted for contravening the National Security Act and the National Intelligence Services Act (國家情報工作法).
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
The Taipei District Court held a closed hearing on the case in September last year, and the High Court upheld the ruling in February.
According to the ruling, during a mission to render aid to a retired bureau colonel surnamed Lu (陸), who was then being detained in Shenzhen, China, Chang made the acquaintance of a Chinese national security official surnamed Wei (韋) and agreed to spy for China.
Chang later turned fellow officer Chou and started facilitating travel, and room and board in China for retired bureau officers, the ruling said.
Chang sought to recruit Yue when he facilitated Yue’s and Chou’s travel to China in 2012 to visit family by arranging a meeting between Yue and Wei in Macau in August that year, the ruling said.
The visit not only provided China with the opportunity to learn of Chou’s and Yue’s positions and affairs in the bureau, but also enabled Chou to identify Taiwanese agents for China, it said.
Yue received HK$6,000 (US$771 at the current exchange rate) and bought a handbag for about NT$30,000 when returning to Taiwan.
Chou and Yue traveled to Guangdong in June 2016, with Chou receiving US$3,000 and returning to Taiwan, while Chinese officials accompanied Yue, and paid his expenses, on his way to Zhengzhou to visit relatives, the ruling said.
In a separate incident, Chang arranged for retired bureau colonel Wang to visit relatives in China in August 2016, but Wang had been taken away by Chinese national security agents after landing at Guangzhou airport, it said.
Chang asked his contacts to intervene, and Wang agreed to join the cell to get out of his predicament, allegedly leaking information about the whereabouts of 24 colleagues at the bureau, the ruling said.
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