Former diabolo champion Lu Chi-hsien (魯紀賢) was today handed a combined sentence of 12 years and eight months by the Taipei District Court in a second espionage case linked to a Chinese spy ring he was convicted of organizing last year.
Lu was indicted a second time after it came to light that he had paid a China Airlines dispatcher to leak information about former president Tsai Ing-wen's (蔡英文) travel itinerary.
Today’s sentence includes six years for one contravention of the National Security Act (國家安全法) and six years and eight months for the second contravention, with four years’ deprivation of civil rights.
Photo: Taipei Times
The verdict may be appealed.
Lu was first indicted in November 2023 along with Chinese national Tian Xi (田曦), five former military and coast guard officers he recruited, and three others tied to the development of the spy network, court documents showed.
The Taipei branch of the High Court last year sentenced Lu to 10 and a half years in prison, upholding the first-instance trial verdict by the Taipei District Court.
Taipei prosecutors then uncovered that Lu recruited a China Airlines flight dispatcher to leak information in March and April of 2023 regarding the travel itinerary of the former president’s diplomatic visit to Guatemala and Belize with transit stops in the US, prompting a second indictment.
The dispatcher, surnamed Ko (葛), logged into China Airlines’ internal network and photographed documents including Tsai’s takeoff and landing times and airport details, they found.
Ko received NT$45,000 in compensation, they found.
The second indictment was filed in December last year by the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office, naming Lu, Ko and two co-conspirators.
Ko was today sentenced to five years and four months, while the two co-conspirators received five years and six months and six years and two months, respectively.
All verdicts may be appealed.
In the first indictment, prosecutors said that Lu visited China in 2020 to seek out opportunities for diabolo performances, where he was recruited by Chinese intelligence services.
He received NT$5.7 million (US$180,593) from Chinese agents to obtain confidential information from active-duty and retired military personnel, they said.
In 2022, he recruited a number of active and retired military personnel, including retired army staff sergeant surnamed Lin (林), who were then instructed to recruit others, they added.
Lu paid three people to help run the spy operations, which had been based in Taipei’s Shilin District since 2022, and used their bank accounts to receive Chinese funding, prosecutors said.
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