• Military
• WMD

• Intelligence Menu               

• Systems
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Imagery
• Links

• Homeland Security
• Space

Taiwan hopes AWOL officer in U.K. will be repatriated for trial soon

ROC Central News Agency

2013/12/20 14:42:00

Taipei, Dec. 20 (CNA) Emily Yeh, the Taiwanese military intelligence officer who fled to the United Kingdom to avoid military service, will face a sentence of no more than five years when she is repatriated, the defense ministry said Friday.

Ministry of National Defense Spokesman Maj. Gen. Luo Shou-he said at a Friday news conference that the maximum sentence for Yeh's desertion is five years, urging her to come home to face trial.

Luo's statement is consistent with Article 39 of the Criminal Code of the Armed Forces and directly refutes the 33-year-old Yeh's claims that she would face the death penalty if repatriated.

'We hope the U.K. government will agree to deport her back to Taiwan as soon as possible to face investigation,' Luo said.

Yeh is currently being held at a detention center in the U.K. where she is awaiting deportation for staying in the country illegally.

Luo said the military will work with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in communicating with U.K. authorities and facilitating Yeh's repatriation.

Taiwan's representative office in London will make it clear to the U.K. that Yeh's case should not have anything to do with seeking asylum, according to Luo.

Yeh apparently applied for asylum last year when she fled to the U.K. based on her death sentence claims.

She had applied to go abroad on vacation June 17-24, 2012 but never returned, the Military Intelligence Bureau said.

She is believed to have attempted to escape service because, as she said, she was 'not fit' for military life, the bureau said.

According to regulations, Yeh is obligated to complete five years of military service, said Pai Chieh-lung, deputy director-general of the defense ministry's Department of Resource Planning.

She started her service at the intelligence bureau in 2010, the bureau said, meaning she still had three years left when she first went AWOL.

Yeh is believed to have entered the U.K. under a visa-exempt program and to have stayed illegally after the period of six months permitted under the program expired.

Taiwan's representative office in London notified the U.K. Border Agency in July of last year that Yeh was wanted by Taiwan for desertion and that her Republic of China (Taiwan) passport had been invalidated.

(By Elaine Hou)
ENDITEM/WH