The Supreme Court on Thursday denied the final appeal for an 11-year prison sentence for an ex-air force colonel who recruited spies for China while on active duty, but handed charges involving the leak of military info back to a lower court.
Former colonel Chang Ming-che (張銘哲) served as a department director at the Air Force Academy before being discharged for his involvement in an espionage case, according to the Ministry of National Defense.
Taichung prosecutors said Chang received NT$1.34 million (US$42,583) from his handlers between 2019 and 2023, with some monthly payments reaching NT$65,000 for his role in providing intelligence and recruiting other spies for China.
Taipei Times
Chang was recruited by three Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) officers attached to the Guangdong Provincial Government’s overseas office in Bali, Indonesia, in 2019 and received a US$10,000 signing bonus, prosecutors alleged.
This was arranged by Chung Shun-he (鍾順和), a China-based Taiwanese businessman who died while the case was pending in the Taichung branch of the High Court last year, prosecutors added.
Prosecutors indicted Chang, Chung and a then-active-duty military officer surnamed Yeh (葉), who they found had also been recruited by Chung to work for China following a 2023 meeting with PLA officers in Singapore.
In September last year, the High Court handed Chang a cumulative 16-year prison term for multiple offenses, including developing a network for an external entity, espionage and the collection of military secrets.
In the same ruling, the court dismissed all charges against Chung due to his death and acquitted Yeh, citing insufficient evidence.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court remanded two other charges of Chang — for which he received four and three-year prison terms, respectively — to the lower court for a retrial.
The grounds for the Supreme Court’s ruling have not been made public.
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