Taipei, April 10 (CNA) An Air Force couple found guilty of espionage received jail sentences of 47 years and 57 years, following a retrial at the Taiwan High Court branch in Kaohsiung on Thursday.
The branch court found Sun Wei (孫緯) and his wife Liu Yun-ya (劉芸雅) guilty of violating four counts of the Criminal Code of the Armed Forces, including passing classified military information to Chinese intelligence.
On each of the four counts, Sun was sentenced to 14 years, 13 years, 14 years, and six years in prison, while his wife was sentenced to 16 years, 17 years, 16 years and eight years.
However, the ruling can still be appealed.
The retrial came after the Supreme Court in June last year found their original sentences to be flawed. Sun and his wife were initially given jail terms of 19 years and six months, and 20 years and six months, respectively.
The couple were found to be connected to a case involving retired Air Force colonel Liu Sheng-shu (劉聖恕).
Based on an investigation by prosecutors, Liu Sheng-shu began doing business in China after retiring from the Air Force in 2013.
He was then recruited by the Chinese side to serve as a spy and used his personal connections in the military to recruit active military officers to engage in espionage activities in exchange for monetary reward.
Liu Sheng-shu succeeded in bringing six officers, including Sun and his wife, into his spy ring and received payments of between NT$200,000 (US$6,089) and NT$700,000 from the Chinese side through a shell company he set up for each individual recruited.
In addition, Liu Sheng-shu was given bonuses of between NT$30,000 and NT$100,000 when his handlers passed on classified information on Taiwan’s military.
The retired Air Force colonel and six other officers were subsequently arrested and indicted by prosecutors in April 2023.
Following subsequent rulings and appeals, the Supreme Court in June last year upheld most of the defendants’ sentences except for Sun and his wife, as their verdicts were ordered to be retried by the Taiwan High Court branch in Kaohsiung.
According to the Control Yuan, Taiwan’s highest government supervisory body, the Ministry of National Defense has also been censured over its handling of the incident, which at the time involved six active military personnel, the most in recent years.
