TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The Supreme Court on Friday rejected final appeals against prison terms of up to seven years for former military police officers guarding the Presidential Office Building and accused of spying for China.

The three officers and a soldier working for the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command at the Ministry of National Defense started photographing classified documents with their smartphones and passing the pictures on to China four years ago, the Liberty Times reported. In return, they received a total of NT$1.84 million (US$58,700) from Chinese intelligence agents.

Military Police Sergeant Lai Chung-yu (賴重宇) was sentenced to seven years in prison, Sergeant Li Yu-erh (黎育爾) to six years and seven months, and Corporal Lin Yu-kai (林裕凱) to five years and 10 months. Private First Class Chen Wen-hao (陳文豪) received a prison term of six years and five months.

Lin had dropped a previous appeal, so he had already started serving his sentence. The three others had been detained, and will start serving their prison term immediately.

The defendants had pled guilty and been found guilty of corruption and of breaking the National Security Act.

A Taiwanese national who recruited Lai and Chen as spies in 2021 is still on the run. Chen invited colleagues at the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command to join him in order to make more money, but nobody took up his offer.