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Intelligence officer detained for leaking national secrets

ROC Central News Agency

2010/11/02 11:43:17

Taipei, Nov. 2 (CNA) A senior Taiwanese military officer was taken into custody Monday on charges of leaking confidential intelligence to China, according to the Defense Ministry.

The officer with the ministry's Military Intelligence Bureau, identified in local media reports as Lo Chi-cheng, is suspected of having forwarded classified information and data to unauthorized personnel in violation of national laws.

The Military High Court agreed to a request to keep Lo detained pending further investigation by military judicial authorities on the grounds that Lo might impair national security or collude with his accomplices to give false testimony if freed, a ministry news statement said.

According to local newspaper reports, military prosecutors believe the detained intelligence officer collaborated with a China-based Taiwanese businessman, identified as Lo Pin, to collect military intelligence for China.

The businessman has also been detained by the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office, pending the progress of the investigation, the reports said.

Lo Chi-cheng allegedly first ran Lo Pin as an informant to help Taiwan collect Chinese military intelligence, but two years ago, Chinese authorities discovered Lo Pin's role.

After Lo Pin admitted to serving as an informant for Lo Chi-cheng, Chinese officials asked him to persuade Lo Chi-cheng to be his informant instead, according to reports.

Lo Chi-cheng agreed to the offer, and the two Lo's became double agents, working in concert to furnish China with Taiwan's military secrets, media reports said.

Lo Pin reportedly returned to Taiwan once every two to four months to pay money to Lo Chi-cheng in exchange for a flash disk containing classified military information.

The businessman also remitted funds to proxy bank accounts designated by the intelligence officer on several occasions, the investigation has found.

A United Daily News (UDN) report said the Military Intelligence Bureau had been monitoring Lo Chi-cheng's actions for quite some time and laid the groundwork to collect evidence and witnesses.

Acting on tipoffs that Lo Chi-cheng would pass military intelligence to Lo Pin in late October, military prosecutors cooperated with their counterparts from the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office and the Bureau of Investigation (BOI) under the Ministry of Justice to handle the case, the UDN report said.

On Sunday, both Lo Chi-cheng and Lo Pin were arrested when they met in Taipei to exchange money and the flash disk, the report said.

Investigators also searched the two men's residences and found bank passbooks and other data related to the case.

BOI agents also summoned the holders of the proxy accounts, and they all admitted to being asked by Lo Chi-cheng to open the accounts which they said were used by the intelligence officer, the report said. (By Huang Jui-hung and Sofia Wu) enditem/ls