Ex-military officer convicted of leaking secrets to China loses pension case

Taipei, Nov. 28 (CNA) The Supreme Administrative Court has upheld a ruling that a retired military intelligence officer convicted of leaking military secrets to a middleman who passed them on to China must return his pension payments totaling about NT$1.66 million (US$53,531).

The verdict against the retired lieutenant colonel Chu (朱) is final and cannot be appealed, the supreme court said on Nov. 24 after a review of the case's ruling, which had been handed down recently by a lower administrative court.

Chu had been issued a notice by the Public Service Pension Fund Management Board (PSPFSB) to return a total of NT$1.66 million in pension payments paid to him from 2015 to 2020 after a court found him guilty of passing on classified military information to a middleman who passed them on to China in a January 2020 ruling.

He was handed three years and six months in prison, and began serving his sentence that year, but was able to get out on probation in January 2022.

After his release, the retired officer filed a request with the PSPFSB to avoid having to return his pension, but it was subsequently dismissed, prompting him to file an administrative litigation case with the Taipei High Administrative Court.

In its ruling, the Taipei administrative court said due to Chu's conviction under the Criminal Code of the Armed Forces, his eligibility for a pension had been voided, a ruling which Chu then appealed with the Supreme Administrative Court.

The trial involving Chu started when he was found to have passed on sensitive military information to Lin Han (林翰) between December 2013 and July 2014 while serving as an active intelligence officer before his retirement in 2015.

At the time, Lin was already retired from the military but had been recruited by another retired Taiwanese officer named Wang Tsung-wu (王宗武), who had been recruiting spies for China and helping identify Taiwanese spies in that country.

According to prosecutors at the time, the two were former Military Intelligence Bureau officers. Wang worked undercover for Taiwan's government in China for four to five years, but was recruited by the Chinese in 2013.

The two men have admitted to investigators to leaking information about active Taiwanese operatives to China, taking money, and being treated to overseas trips.

In 2017, Wang was subsequently found guilty and sentenced to 18 years in prison for espionage, while Lin received six years.