Taipei [Taiwan], December 20 : A former Chinese navy officer, identified as 60-year-old Ruan, has been sentenced to eight months in prison by the Taiwan High Court, who arrived at the mouth of the Tamsui River in a motorboat last June, Taiwan News reported.
The suspect, piloted a speedboat from China's province of Fujian to arrive at a ferry pier in Tamsui, New Taipei, 12 hours later, on June 9.
The navy officer told the police that he wanted to claim political asylum in Taiwan but was detained on illegal immigration charges. Shilin District Court found him guilty in September, sentencing him to eight months in prison, as per Taiwan News.
While he did endanger national security, he had given himself up to police, the court ruled. The judge left the decision of whether Ruan should be deported after serving his jail term up to the National Immigration Agency.
According to Taiwan News, the High Court rejected an appeal against the lower court sentence and confirmed the eight-month prison term Friday.
Meanwhile, every day China is sending its aircraft and navy vessel to Taiwan to assert its claims over the island.
On Thursday, China said that they are launching a rocket carrying a satellite that will likely fly over Taiwan's Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ).
Earlier this year, the Ministry of National Defence issued regular updates on such launches aiming to keep the public informed about China's military activities in the vicinity of Taiwan.
Taiwan's Ministry of National Defence (MND) stated that it detected 12 Chinese military aircraft and five naval vessels around Taiwan between 6 am (local time) on Thursday and 6 am (local time) on Friday.
According to the MND, of the 12 People's Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft, five crossed the Taiwan Strait median line in the country's southwestern air defence identification zone (ADIZ).
In a post on X, Taiwan's MND said, "12 PLA aircraft and 5 PLAN vessels operating around Taiwan were detected up until 6 a.m. (UTC+8) today. 5 of the aircraft crossed the median line and entered Taiwan's southwestern ADIZ. We have monitored the situation and responded accordingly."
According to the Taipei Times, an ADIZ is a self-declared area in which a country claims the right to identify, locate and control approaching foreign aircraft but is not part of its territorial airspace as defined by international law.
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor