Former Taiwan president Ma Ying-jeou was sentenced Tuesday to four months in prison on charges he leaked classified information, making him the island's second consecutive leader to face prison time and the third to be tried for a crime after leaving office.
The common fate of Taiwan's former presidents points to soft spots in the legal system of a relatively young democracy, political scholars say. Judges come under pressure from Taiwan's two major political camps, some analysts say, and Taiwanese increasingly demand that politicians be punished for graft that was once tolerated.
