Central News Agency (CNA, Taipei, June 30) A lawyer surnamed Ding, who defended members of an international drug trafficking group, was found to have leaked secrets, allowing the criminal organization to evade investigation. The first trial sentenced Ding to 9 months in prison, suspended for 3 years. The High Court today rejected the appeal, and Ding's suspended sentence is final. The first trial at the Shilin District Court ruled that a defendant surnamed Zhang, a member of the international drug trafficking group, rented a residential property in Keelung as a base for packaging and selling drugs. Because another associate of the group, surnamed Yang, was ordered by the court to be detained and barred from seeing visitors in a separate case, group members sought to ascertain if Yang had revealed information about his suppliers. With Zhang's assistance, they arranged for lawyer Ding to represent Yang. According to the verdict, after agreeing, Ding accompanied Yang during police questioning and made a legal visit to Yang at the Taipei Detention Center in April 2025. During these interactions, Ding learned of investigation secrets held by the prosecution and police, including the location of Yang's drug supply source, evidence of drug sales, and communication records related to drug trafficking stored on the mobile phones of relevant individuals. The verdict stated that Ding hand-wrote the gist of the investigation secrets on paper and gave it to Zhang. Zhang then took photos and sent them to other group members. This allowed the group members to learn that their drug trafficking base had been targeted by the prosecution and police. On May 15, 2025, they moved the drug trafficking base, resulting in the police finding no contraband when they searched the premises on June 18 of the same year. The first trial panel found that Ding leaked investigation secrets obtained while acting as a defense counsel, hindering criminal investigations. The timing of Ding's leak of inve