China holding 107 deported Taiwanese fraud suspects: official
ROC Central News Agency
2016/08/11 20:29:56
Taipei, Aug. 11 (CNA) A total of 107 Taiwanese nationals are currently being held in China after they were deported from other countries on suspicion of involvement in telecommunications fraud, Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正), deputy minister of Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), said Thursday.
He said 50 of the 107 Taiwanese were deported from Kenya, 32 from Malaysia and 25 from Cambodia.
The most recent deportation took place on Monday when five Taiwanese were sent to China after they were acquitted on Aug. 5 by a Kenyan court of charges related to operating a cybercrime cell, Chiu said.
The five Taiwanese, along with 35 Chinese, were arrested in December 2014 for allegedly running a cybercrime cell from an upmarket Nairobi suburb, but were acquitted on grounds that the prosecution failed to prove its case against them.
Despite Taiwan's protests, Kenyan authorities caved to pressure from Beijing and handed over the five Taiwanese to Chinese authorities.
The five deportees are being held at a detention center in Haidian District in Beijing, along with 45 other Taiwanese telecom fraud suspects who were deported from Kenya in April, according to the MAC.
Chiu said the MAC, Taiwan's top China policy-making agency, will continue to negotiate with China to secure the return of the detainees to Taiwan, where they will stand trial.
The Taiwan government will also seek visitation rights for the families of the detainees, Chiu said.
The 25 Taiwanese suspects who were deported from Cambodia on June 24 are being held in the Chinese city of Wenzhou, while the 32 deported from Malaysia on April 30 are being held at two detention centers in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province, according to Chiu.
(By Miu Chung-han and Evelyn Kao)
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