Taipei prosecutors yesterday launched an investigation targeting Taiwan People’s Party Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), after they received a complaint accusing him of allegedly leaking state secrets when he on Monday took classified documents on the special defense budget out of the room where a legislative committee meeting was taking place.
Political commentator Chang Ming-yu (張銘祐), a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate for Taipei City councilor, on Tuesday filed a judicial complaint at the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office, accusing Huang of contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法) and the Criminal Code.
Huang on Monday attended a closed-door meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee to review the NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.52 billion) special defense budget involving US arms procurement, and Taiwan’s weapons development and production.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
“Reports about armed forces deployments, purchases of advance weapons, combat preparedness and cooperation with other countries were presented at the meeting. These are classified military documents. Any breach would cause irreparable damage to the nation’s security,” Chang said.
Taipei prosecutors in a statement confirmed that they would investigate a suspected national security breach by Huang.
DPP Legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋) said Huang had two aides with him when he took the confidential materials out of the meeting room.
They might have taken photos to help Huang plan his own version of special defense budget or might have leaked state secrets, Shen said.
DPP caucus secretary-general Chen Pei-yu (陳培瑜) said surveillance footage from that day allegedly showed Huang left the room and remained outside for 1 minute and 15 seconds, not for “only 30 seconds” as he claimed.
The committee chair had instructed an attending military officer to go after Huang and fetch the documents, she said, adding that his claim that he went back on his own initiative to return them is not true.
“Since the security cameras have some blind spots in the hallway, stairwell and bathroom, 42 seconds of the trio’s actions were not recorded,” she said, alleging that the aides could have taken photos in that period.
“That is sufficient time for Huang’s aides to take photos of the documents, page by page,” Chen said.
Huang last week said that he would propose his own version of the special defense budget, she added.
Huang in a livestream yesterday said that he was just “being careless” and accidentally mixed confidential military documents with others, when he was preparing to leave the room, and that he returned to the committee room in only 30 seconds.
The committee staff “should have retrieved all the documents in front of legislators when we left the room,” he said.
“Those documents are not of high-level confidentiality, just because DPP members said so,” he said. “The US side is to reveal the content of those special budget items in the coming weeks. They will not remain classified material for long.”
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