The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by a former Legislative Yuan specialist who was sentenced to three years and two months in jail for helping more than 200 Chinese illegally enter Taiwan between 2018 and 2020.
The ruling, issued on Wednesday, is final and cannot be appealed.
The defendant, surnamed Lin (林), allegedly colluded with Taiwanese company Wisbet International Co from September 2018 to January 2020 to help 215 Chinese immigrants enter Taiwan, court documents showed.
Photo: Chang Wen-chuan, Taipei Times
Lin allegedly took advantage of his position to convince government agencies to approve applications filled with false personal information, the documents showed.
Lin allegedly made NT$1.98 million (US$61,202) helping the immigrants enter Taiwan, they showed.
During the trial at the Tainan District Court, Lin denied any wrongdoing and said he did not take any money from Wisbet.
However, an investigation showed that Lin earned money from each of the immigrants he helped bring to Taiwan, while evidence such as e-mails found on Lin’s office computer indicated that he understood he was contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the judges said.
According to the district court, despite Lin knowing Wisbet was helping Chinese immigrants enter Taiwan using falsified documents, he still helped them.
The immigrants allegedly engaged in illegal behavior such as gambling and money laundering after entering Taiwan, posing threats to national security, court documents said.
Lin was initially sentenced to three years and six months in jail, while the profits he allegedly made were confiscated by the district court.
Lin filed an appeal.
At a High Court hearing, Lin said he did not intend to threaten national security, adding that he was not in contact with anyone from China directly, only helping submit petitions to government entities, such as the National Immigration Agency.
Lin asked the High Court to reduce his jail term in accordance with Article 59 of the Criminal Code, which allows a court to reduce a sentence if the offense is “so pitiable that even the minimum punishment is considered too severe.
The High Court ruled that Lin was more involved in helping the immigrants enter Taiwan than Wisbet employees, and the profits he made were higher than the administrative fees required to file the applications, making it difficult to determine whether Lin was not attempting to make money helping the immigrants.
In addition, the people he helped were found to have engaged in activities that contravened Taiwan’s laws and harmed social stability.
As Lin admitted his wrongdoing at the High Court hearing and returned all the profits he made helping the immigrants, his jail term was reduced to three years and two months, the court said.
Nevertheless, Lin appealed the ruling, but the Supreme Court ruled that the High Court verdict was reasonable, and rejected his appeal.
Meanwhile, the Legislative Yuan also handed Lin over to the Disciplinary Court, where he was given a two-year suspension after a second instance judgement issued last year.
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