The Supreme Court yesterday upheld guilty sentences for three military service members accused of spying for China, but ordered retrials for three other defendants.
The guilty verdicts are final.
The case involved an espionage ring allegedly headed by Ding Xiaohu (丁小琥), a Chinese national who targeted active duty and retired Taiwanese military personnel for recruitment, resulting in secret information being passed to Beijing.
Photo: Wu Cheng-feng, Taipei Times
Last year, the High Prosecutors’ Office indicted Ding and six former and active military personnel over contraventions of the National Security Act (國家安全法) and Criminal Code of the Armed Forces (陸海空軍刑法).
Ding died of an illness in February and his case was dismissed.
Two Taiwanese implicated in the case, Chang Chih-wei (張志煒) and Ho Sheng-ying (何聖影), had died earlier during the investigation.
The Supreme Court upheld the guilty verdict and seven-year prison sentence of retired lieutenant colonel Wang Wen-hao (王文豪), who served in the Army Combat Readiness and Training Division.
It also upheld the guilty verdict and seven-year-and-two-month prison sentence of retired lieutenant colonel Tan Chun-ming (譚俊明), who served in the Air Force Air Defense and Missile Command.
It upheld the guilty verdict and six-year prison sentence of Sergeant Major Lu Fang-chi (呂芳契), who served in the Army Armored Training Command.
It vacated the convictions of Major Colonel Yang Po-chih (楊博智), a staff officer at the Army Northern Region Combined Testing Center, his sister Second Lieutanent Yang Chien-hui (楊千慧), who is a human resources officer at the Air Force Air Defense and Missile Command, and her husband, Major Chiu Han-lin (邱翰林), who serves at the same command as an air defense control officer.
The Supreme Court said that prosecutors must prove the factual basis of the allegations against the three defendants in a retrial at the High Court.
Ding, ostensibly an overseas Chinese and ethnic affairs official at the Changsha municipal government, was with the Nannin branch of the Chinese Central Military Commission Political Work Department’s Liaison Bureau, the prosecutors’ office said in the indictment.
Ding, registered as a resident of Hong Kong, visited Taiwan multiple times under the cover of cross-strait religious exchange activities revolving around Matsu worship, business and tourism, it said.
Ding had access to funds estimated at NT$11.12 million (US$348,480), which he used to bribe service members in exchange for intelligence and other potential informants, the office said.
He paid assets by the quality of the information they provided, using unregistered financial operations to launder the money, it said
Military service members on Ding’s payroll were instructed to convince their comrades to offer no resistance to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, should Taiwan and China go to war, the office said.
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