Two Taiwanese fishing boat captains are feared dead as they were not on board when their boats, which had gone missing, were found by the Indonesian Navy on Thursday.
Several officials with Taiwan’s representative office in Indonesia are assisting Indonesian police in the investigations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Henry Chen (陳銘政) said, adding that the ministry couldn’t confirm the two captains’ deaths until Indonesian authorities did.
“We can only confirm that the two boats were found, but not the two captains. The crew members of the two boats are under interrogation, and our people are there to help with the investigation,” Chen said.
Chen said the ministry had assisted the families of Lee Ruei-lung (李瑞隆), captain of the Sheng-yi Tsai 166, and Chen Ying-chung (陳盈忠), captain of the Chen Fu-hsiang 16, upon their arrival in Indonesia.
The Sheng-yi Tsai 166, with ten Indonesian fishermen on board, lost contact with Taiwan on March 22, while the Chen Fu-hsiang 16 had not made contact since April 14, when it was operating in an area south of Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean.
INVESTIGATIONS
Commenting on the Chen Fu-hsiang 16, Indonesian Admiral Didit Herdiawan was quoted by Indonesia’s VIVAnews as saying that “according to the initial assessment, some of the suspects have allegedly committed murder. We’ll carry out further investigation on that.”
Chen Jung-yuan (陳榮源), Chen Ying-chung’s brother, told reporters that he hoped the Indonesian crew members would be brought to Taiwan for trial.
Chen Jung-yuan said that in past cases when Indonesian crew members were found guilty of killing Taiwanese captains, they were seldom given heavy sentences by their government and some even changed their names and went back to work in other Taiwanese fishing vessels after they were released.
SIMILAR CASES
Fisheries Agency Director-General James Sha (沙志一) yesterday said there have been similar cases where boats were found on the sea with their captains missing.
Sha said there were on average two or three cases per year in which Taiwanese captains were killed by Indonesian crew members they recruited.
Sha said Indonesian courts have had mixed success in convicting Indonesian crew members suspected of killing Taiwanese captains.
“Some were indicted, while some were not. Indonesian authorities have had difficulties convicting crew members as they say the captains jumped into the sea by themselves,” he said.
Asked about the possibility of extraditing accused Indonesian crew members in the absence of an extradition agreement between Taiwan and Indonesia, Henry Chen said the ministry would try to meet the expectations of families of the captains and the ships’ owners.
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