Ex-legislative aide gets 10-month jail term in national security case
ROC Central News Agency
02/16/2022 09:48 PM
Taipei, Feb. 16 (CNA) The Taiwan Supreme Court has upheld a decision by a lower court sentencing former legislative aide Chen Wei-jen (陳惟仁) to 10 months imprisonment for national security offenses by developing a spy network for China, according to court documents released Wednesday.
The Supreme Court's decision is final.
In August 2020, Taipei District Prosecutors Office indicted Chen along with another two former legislative aides Lin Yung-ta (林雍達) and Lee Yi-hsien (李易諴) for spying activities and organizing espionage networks in Taiwan to obtain classified materials for China from 2012 to 2016, in violation of the National Security Act.
Prosecutors dropped the case against Lee after he died of colon cancer in September 2020.
Prosecutors said that both Chen and Lin traveled to Macau in 2012, where they met a Chinese intelligence officer, identified as "Huang Guanlong" (黃冠龍), who asked them to set up a spy network in Taiwan and gather information for the Chinese security agency in exchange for financial gain.
In 2016, Chen and Lee were instructed by Huang to try and obtain information from the National Police Agency regarding anti-China activities carried out by Falun Gong members in Taiwan.
However, no such information was provided, according to Taipei prosecutors.
Between September and October 2016, the three men provided the Chinese intelligence officer with inside information he requested on the Kuomintang National Policy Foundation think tank's cross-strait forum.
Other attempts to obtain sensitive material from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) regarding the presidential election also failed because the insiders they tried to recruit refused to cooperate, according to the indictment.
In May 2021, Taipei District Court handed Chen a 10-month jail sentence for national security offenses, and another three months behind bars for attempted spying and collecting classified national security information, although the three months was commutable to a fine.
For his involvement, Lin received a five-month prison term, which was also commutable to a fine, the district court said.
The two were former aides to Chen Shu-hui (陳淑慧), who at the time was a lawmaker for the Kuomintang (KMT) and is currently deputy mayor of Chiayi City.
Chen filed an appeal, while Lin did not.
The Taiwan High Court in November 2021 upheld Chen's 10-month jail term for national security offenses, but acquitted him on the charge of attempted spying and collecting classified national security information.
Chen appealed the High Court's decision but the appeal was rejected by the Supreme Court on Feb. 9.
(By Hsiao Po-wen and Evelyn Kao)
Enditem/AW
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