Kaohsiung prosecutors yesterday said they would appeal a court decision to release on bail three suspects accused of recruiting retired military personnel to visit China and participating in “united front” activities to interfere in next year’s presidential election.
The Ciaotou District Prosecutors’ Office requested that the Ciaotou District Court detain a retired army colonel surnamed Liu (劉), a retired rear-admiral surnamed Sun (孫) and a civilian surnamed Chu (祝) for allegedly contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法), the Anti-infiltration Act (反滲透法) and Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Act (總統副總統選舉罷免法).
However, the court early yesterday released Liu and Chu each on NT$500,000 bail, and Sun on NT$600,000 bail.
Photo: Wu Cheng-feng, Taipei Times
The trio were allegedly recruited by Chinese operatives and had since 2017 used their personal connections to find retired military personnel to visit China, with travel paid for with funding from the Chinese Communist Party, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors also said that Sun and Liu had received Chinese funding to host events in Taiwan to campaign for specific candidates, giving away freebies such as zongzi (粽子, glutinous rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves) and peanut butter candies.
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