[JURIST] Taiwanese prosecutors indicted former president Ma Ying-jeou on Tuesday on charges of leaking classified information and state secrets. The Taipei District Public Prosecutor’s Office [official website] indicted [BBC report] Ma after a six-month investigation and now alleges that Ma ordered the contents of wire-tapped phone calls between the parliamentary Speaker and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) [Facebook page] lawmaker Ker Chien-ming [official profile] be disclosed to other governmental officials. Ma claims that the contents of the phone call related to “influence-peddling” and that it was his responsibility as head of state to wiretap and disclose the contents. Ker filed a private lawsuit on the same matter, and the court is expected to announce a verdict this month.

Leaking of classified information has been a worldwide corruption problem. Last month a former US National Security Agency contractor was indicted [JURIST report] by a federal grand jury on charges that he willfully retained national defense information, allegedly the largest heist of classified government information in history. In November South Korean prosecutors said that President Park Geun-hye will be investigated [JURIST report] “as a suspect” in a political corruption scandal after a former aide was indicted for leaking classified documents to a friend of the president. In July a Chinese court near Beijing jailed Ling Jihua, a top aide to former China president Hu Jintao, and sentenced him to life imprisonment [JURIST report] after finding him guilty of taking bribes, illegally obtaining state secrets and abuse of power.