• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Taiwanese suspects sent to China undermines Taiwan: premier-designate

ROC Central News Agency

2016/05/01 17:40:15

Taipei, May 1 (CNA) The two sides of the Taiwan Strait need more comprehensive communication on joint crime-fighting efforts, since the recent incidents of Taiwanese fraud suspects being sent to China by a third country undermine Taiwan's judicial power, Premier-designate Lin Chuan (林全) said Sunday.

A mechanism of full communication and cooperation between Taiwan and China is needed to address challenges regarding telecom fraud schemes involving suspects and victims from both sides, Lin said.

The incoming Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration, which is set to take office May 20, will seek to talk to the Chinese authorities about the issue of Taiwanese fraud suspects caught in a third country being sent to China instead of Taiwan.

Lin made the remarks after Malaysia deported 32 Taiwanese nationals arrested for an alleged fraud scheme targeting mainly Chinese citizens, sending them to China rather than Taiwan a day earlier.

The deportations took place after Taiwan and China reached an agreement April 21 to jointly investigate alleged fraud rings busted both in Kenya and Malaysia, after the African country deported Taiwanese fraud suspects to China in early April.

The 32 Taiwanese sent to China Saturday were among a group of 52 who were arrested in the Southeast Asian country March 25. The 20 others were brought back to Taiwan April 15.

Lin said he is not sure whether the 32 Taiwanese suspects were sent to China because the 20 that returned to Taiwan were originally released after police questioning.

Even if that was the reason behind Saturday's deportation of Taiwanese to China, he said Taiwan is a country that follows rule of law and nothing much can be done to suspects without sufficient evidence.

On April 21, however, the Taichung District Court granted a request by prosecutors to detain 18 of the 20 suspects sent back from Malaysia, after the Malaysian authorities provided evidence against the suspects.

The premier-designate said he hopes both Taiwan and China can show good faith in addressing the issue in order to achieve developments in joint efforts to fight crime.

Chiu Tai-san (邱太三), who has been named as minister of justice in the incoming administration, said during a team-building camp for the DPP government Sunday that he supports the joint efforts across the Taiwan Strait to fight crime.

Taiwan and China signed the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement in April 2009 under the outgoing government under President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).

Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council pointed out in an April 26 statement that both sides have worked together to crack down on fraud schemes based in Southeast Asia since the signing of the agreement.

(By Lu Hsin-hui and Kay Liu)
ENDITEM/J