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Beijing to seek to take more Taiwan fraud suspects to China: MOFA

ROC Central News Agency

2016/08/09 17:50:44

Taipei, Aug. 9 (CNA) Following the latest in a series of telecom fraud cases in which Taiwanese suspects caught in Kenya have been taken to China to face trial there at the demand of Beijing, a Foreign Ministry official said Tuesday that Beijing will seek to bring more Taiwanese suspects to China to be tried there.

Currently, there are 40 Taiwanese suspects detained in Egypt over alleged involvement in fraud operations, and 10 Taiwanese suspects detained in Turkey, also for alleged fraud, said Chen Chun-shen (陳俊賢), director-general of the Department of West Asian and African Affairs under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at a news conference.

"The Chinese authorities will definitely attempt to bring them to China," he said in response to reporters' questions, without elaborating further.

The suspects in Egypt were arrested in July 2014. They were caught along with 56 Chinese nationals for operating a phone fraud ring that targeted victims in Taiwan and China, according to media reports.

In Turkey, the 10 Taiwanese suspects were among 52 Taiwanese nationals arrested in May for alleged fraud. Forty-two of the 52 Taiwanese nationals were deported by Turkey after being investigated on suspicion of fraud, and arrived in Taiwan in early June. Upon arrival, they were questioned by prosecutors.

Citing a statement by the Turkish police, Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said a total of 81 fraud suspects were arrested May 27, 52 of whom have been identified as Taiwanese nationals, while the rest are from China.

The Taiwanese allegedly installed monitoring cameras near ATM machines at banks to record people's passwords, according to Turkish police.

Chen's remarks came after China took five Taiwan nationals earlier this week, who had been acquitted of fraud in a court in Nairobi, despite an understanding of cooperation between the Taiwanese and Chinese authorities in recent years and despite Taiwan's calls for them to be sent back to Taiwan.

Taiwan on Monday expressed "deep regret" and "strong protest" over the forced deportation of the five Taiwan nationals from Kenya to China, saying it showed "contempt for human rights."

Because Taiwan does not have a presence in Kenya, Taiwan's representative to South Africa John Chen (陳忠) has spent a lot of time in Nairobi dealing with the case and trying to prevent the Taiwan nationals being handed over to China.

Despite his efforts, international media coverage of the case and efforts by human rights groups, they were still put on a chartered flight to China Sunday evening, Kenya time.

They were arrested along with several others in 2014, but later acquitted, for allegedly staying in Kenya without proper documentation and running illegal telecom operations, which were later linked to fraud schemes targeting people in China.

The other 23 Taiwanese arrested in 2014 were acquitted of the same charges in April, but they and 22 Taiwanese arrested for similar allegations in early April were deported to China later that month.

(By Tang Pei-chun and Elaine Hou)
ENDITEM/J