TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The Taiwan High Court on Tuesday (April 9) overturned a lower court ruling, finding a retired Navy major general not guilty of forming a spy ring for China.

Hsia Fu-hsiang (夏復翔) and former Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) Legislator Lo Chih-ming (羅志明) were charged last year with breaking the National Security Act by recruiting dozens of mostly retired military officers to collect information for China. The two men denied the allegations.

A district court found Lo not guilty but sentenced Hsia to five months in prison last year. However, after an appeal by prosecutors, the Taiwan High Court in Kaohsiung City on Tuesday ruled that both men were not guilty, per CNA.

The judge said Hsia had been asked to help recruit retired Navy officers for an annual golf tournament without any apparent remuneration. It was predictable that Chinese officials would use the event to promote unification propaganda, but it was unlikely that Taiwanese ex-officers would be interested, the court said.

Appeals against Tuesday’s not-guilty verdicts are still possible, according to the High Court. Prosecutors argued that Lo had been persuaded by a Chinese acquaintance in 2013 to start recruiting retired officers via Hsia to travel to China and attend propaganda meetings.

A total of 48 retired senior military men had been invited to China on 13 occasions, the prosecutors said. They attended celebrations marking anniversaries of events in modern Chinese history, visited Sichuan and Macau, and toured the Zhuhai Air Show.

However, the High Court ruled that the show had not targeted the ex-officers, as it was a general event welcoming guests and military enthusiasts from all over the world. In addition, there was no evidence that they had dined in the company of Chinese military officers or government officials, the court concluded.