Five Taiwanese who were allegedly involved in telecom fraud from a base in Kenya and were deported to China on Monday have been put in a detention center in Beijing, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said late on Tuesday.
The council said it was notified by Chinese authorities of the latest development.
The five Taiwanese are being held at a detention center in Haidian District, where another 45 Taiwanese suspected of telecom fraud and deported from Kenya to China in April are also being detained, the MAC said.
The Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), a semi-official body that handles contacts with China in the absence of official ties, has contacted the the families of the five suspects and expressed its willingness to help them, the MAC said.
Xinhua news agency on Monday reported that Kenya had handed over the five Taiwanese to Chinese authorities along with 35 Chinese suspects that day and put them on a charter aircraft bound for China that took off at about 7pm.
A Kenyan court on Friday last week found the five Taiwanese not guilty of running unlicensed telecom operations and engaging in organized crime, but Kenyan authorities caved in to pressure from Beijing and handed them over to Chinese authorities, despite protests from Taiwan.
The incident was similar to the earlier deportations of 45 Taiwanese from Kenya to China in April after at least 23 of them had been cleared of engaging in unlicensed telecom operations in the country.
Taiwan believes it should have jurisdiction over its own people, but Beijing has argued that the suspects should be investigated and prosecuted in China because their alleged telecoms fraud schemes targeted people in China.
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