A Beijing court is expected today to pass its verdict on an international telecom fraud case involving 44 Taiwanese suspects who were deported from Kenya to China.
It is to be the first verdict to be delivered on cases involving Taiwanese telecom fraud suspects deported from other countries to China.
A total of 85 suspects stood trial in Beijing from July 18 to July 20 in a cross-border telecom fraud case, including 44 Taiwanese, who were arrested in Kenya and extradited to China in April last year, the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court said.
Thirty-five of the suspects were accused of carrying out fraudulent activities in Indonesia from June to November in 2014, before traveling to Kenya.
The other 50 suspects allegedly operated in Kenya from June 2015 to April last year.
The 85 suspects pleaded guilty to cheating 185 people in China out of more than 29 million yuan (US$4.4 million), Xinhua news agency reported in July.
The verdict announcements are to be open to some Taiwanese media stationed in Beijing.
A diplomatic row flared up between Taiwan and China over a big increase in deportations to China of Taiwanese suspected of telecom fraud.
Since last year, Beijing has insisted on the deportations to China of more than 200 Taiwanese from several countries, including Kenya, Malaysia, Cambodia, Armenia, Vietnam and Indonesia, for alleged telecom fraud.
A Spanish court last week ordered the deportation of 121 Taiwanese fraud suspects to China at the request of the Chinese government.
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