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Chai Trong-rong’s jail sentence cut
By Lee Hsin-fang / Staff Writer
Former Democratic Progressive
Party legislator Chai Trong-rong talks to reporters in Taipei yesterday after
being sentenced to three months for libel against former National Security
Council secretary-general Su Chi.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
Former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)
legislator Chai Trong-rong (蔡同榮) was sentenced to three months in prison, which
can be commuted to fines, and two years probation by the Taiwan High Court
yesterday in a slander case pertaining to Chai’s accusation that former National
Security Council secretary-general Su Chi (蘇起) leaked research on maritime areas
around Taiwan to China.
The Taiwan High Court yesterday changed an earlier verdict by the Taipei
District Court -sentencing Chai to six months in prison in September 2010, and
reduced the sentence to three months in prison.
At the time, the district court also ordered him to publish an apology in the
Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper).
While the ruling will not affect Chai’s ability to run in the May 27 DPP
chairperson election, Chai expressed discontent over the verdict, adding he was
only fulfilling his responsibility as a DPP legislator at the time by disclosing
the alleged leak by President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) first council
secretary-general.
Officials involved in the case had been accepting paychecks from the government
while establishing contacts with Beijing, Chai said, adding they had also made
reports to the council, on which Su had marked the word “noted” after viewing.
In his allegations, Chai said Su asked Major General Mao Hui-ming (毛惠民), one of
his aides at the council, to order the Ministry of National Defense to provide
data on maritime research to Beijing.
‘The research report was a highly classified document and was barred from
disclosure, in particular to China. However, a document submitted to the UN by
China was found to contain information regarding Taiwan’s maritime research and
dates, which was evidence that the material had been handed by Taiwan to China,”
Chai said.
Chai told the court at the time that his information had come from former deputy
minister of national defense Michael Tsai (蔡明憲), who told him that Lee
Chao-shing (李昭興), an academic on the maritime research team, had visited China.
Translated by Stacy Hsu, Staff Writer
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