Taipei, March 26 (CNA) Four former military personnel have been found guilty of selling documents to a middleman for the Chinese intelligence services, the Taipei District Court ruled Wednesday.
In a statement, the court said that the quartet had been convicted of breaching national security laws and accepting bribes.
In its ruling, the court described their actions as a “betrayal of the country,” emphasizing that, having been trained by the military, they should have upheld loyalty to the nation.
“Instead, they accepted bribes and secretly photographed nonclassified but sensitive internal documents from key security and intelligence units over several months, endangering national security,” the court said.
The convicted individuals, identified by their last names Lai (賴), Li (黎), Lin (林), and Chen (陳), were previously indicted in December 2024 on national security and corruption charges.
They were given sentences of seven years, six years and eight months, five years and 10 months, and six years and five months, respectively, the court said.
All four were also ordered to pay restitution equal to their illegal earnings, the court added.
The sentences are subject to appeal.
According to the Ministry of National Defense (MND), the first three suspects were members of the 211th Military Police Battalion, which guards the Presidential Office, while the fourth served in the MND’s Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command.
Prosecutors said that Lai and Chen began passing documents to a middleman for the Chinese intelligence services in exchange for money while still serving in the military in April 2022.
They were allegedly recruited and paid by a Taiwanese man surnamed Huang (黃), who remains at large.
Initially, Chen photographed the documents, which were then relayed by Lai to Huang or another Chinese operative. Lai later began taking the photos himself but was caught and reassigned to another unit, prosecutors said.
Following Lai’s transfer, he recruited Li to continue photographing documents, and Li later passed the task to Lin before retiring in February last year, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors estimate that Lai received NT$460,000 (US$14,201), Chen NT$450,000, Li NT$664,100, and Lin NT$265,900 for their actions.
Prosecutors launched an investigation in August 2024 after the MND received a tip-off from a soldier.
