The High Court today reduced the sentence of a former deputy chief of the Military News Agency's news desk who was convicted of attempting to recruit spies on behalf of China.
In July last year, the Taoyuan District Court sentenced former lieutenant colonel Kung Fan-chia (孔繁嘉) to five years and six months in prison after he pled guilty.
The High Court reduced his sentence to five years and four months after judges ruled that he had not started trying to recruit spies until after leaving active service.
Photo: Taipei Times file photo
The sentence can still be appealed.
While Kung was working for the Ministry of National Defense’s Military News Agency, he was introduced to a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official from Xiamen operating under the Chinese People’s Liberation Army's Eastern Theater Command, the High Court said in a statement.
In November 2006 and April 2008, he accepted US$6,000 and US$5,700 respectively, to invite active-duty and retired military personnel to visit China or third locations abroad on behalf of the CCP, it said.
The goal was to have them divulge military secrets and enable the CCP to form a spy ring in Taiwan, the High Court said.
Kung retired on Aug. 17, 2012, but received 60,000 yuan (US$8,357 at the current exchange rate) from his Chinese handlers between 2014 and 2016, it said.
In 2017, he tried to invite an officer surnamed Wang (王) to China or another location to connect him with the CCP, but Wang rejected his offer, the High Court said.
He successfully invited a retired soldier, also surnamed Wang (王), to China, where they were hosted by CCP officials in April and May 2019, it said.
In 2020, Wang tried to organize more meetings between the retired soldier and CCP officials, but failed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it said, adding that Kung gave the soldier a CCP official’s contact information, but the soldier failed to reach out to them.
The High Court found that Kung was guilty of two crimes — one count of bribery under the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例) and one count of contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法).
The Taoyuan District Court only found him guilty of accepting bribes or other improper benefits, and erroneously determined that he started to recruit spies while still in active service, the High Court said.
Taking into account those factors and that Kung pled guilty, his sentence should be reduced by two months, it said.
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