Taiwanese officials yesterday visited a detention center in Beijing where they talked via video link with several of the 45 Taiwanese detained on suspicion that they were part of a telecoms fraud ring that allegedly scammed Chinese from a base in Kenya.
Accompanied by Chinese officials, the 10-member delegation led by Chen Wen-chi (陳文琪), director-general of the Ministry of Justice’s Department of International and Cross-Strait Legal Affairs, talked with the suspects from a large conference room, which was open to news cameras from Taiwan, China and Hong Kong.
Two of the suspects have hired Chinese lawyers to represent them, Chen said.
The delegation also held a closed-door meeting with officials from China’s Public Security Bureau, during which the Chinese officials presented their findings and information they collected about the suspects’ involvement in the alleged scam. They then listened to the delegation’s opinions on the case, Chen said.
Chen said the information and data provided by China will be taken back to Taiwan for prosecutors and police authorities to look over and expressed hope that the two sides will continue cooperating in joint crime-fighting efforts.
A formal talk between the delegation and China was to be held later yesterday and the delegation was expected to propose and discuss ways to deal with the fate of the suspects.
Taiwan has said that it has jurisdiction over its nationals, while Beijing contends it has jurisdiction over the case because the people affected by the scam are Chinese.
In related news, 18 of 20 fraud suspects who were deported to Taiwan from Malaysia on Friday last week were detained by authorities yesterday after their release last week sparked controversy in Taiwan as well as in China, where many of their alleged victims reside.
The Taichung District Court granted prosecutors’ requests for the detention of the suspects, after prosecutors said that there is strong evidence against the suspects and, unless detained, they would likely collude with each other to make their confessions match during trial and they could even engage in more illegal activities.
Additional reporting by Jason Pan
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