The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday lauded the Czech government for providing “subsidiary protection” to eight Taiwanese fraud suspects detained in Prague, instead of deporting them to China as requested by Beijing.
Subsidiary protection is an international protection given to a non-EU national or a stateless person who does not qualify as a refugee and might face the risk of suffering serious harm if returned to their country of origin, according to the EU’s Web site.
“We commend and appreciate the position of the Czech government, which showed moral courage and pragmatism in protecting the human rights of Taiwanese, and refusing China’s [extradition] request,” ministry spokesman Andrew Lee (李憲章) said.
It is the ministry’s obligation to protect the basic human and legal rights of Taiwanese when they face problems abroad, and the government would do all it can to help the suspects and have them returned home for legal proceedings, he said.
The suspects were in January last year arrested in Prague on an Interpol red notice. Beijing has accused them of posing as Chinese police officers and prosecutors to defraud Chinese nationals in their home country by telephone.
A Czech court last fall agreed to extradite them to China on Beijing’s pledge that they would face a fair trial and not be given the death penalty.
However, Czech Minister of the Interior Jan Hamacek on Monday said on Twitter that the suspects would be given subsidiary protection.
The Czech government feared for the safety of the suspects out of concern that they could face inhumane treatment or capital punishment if they were deported to China, the Czech News Agency reported.
A series of discussions on the legacy of martial law and authoritarianism are to be held at the Taipei International Book Exhibition this month, featuring findings and analysis by the Transitional Justice Commission. The commission and publisher Book Republic organized the series, entitled “Escaping the Nation’s Labyrinth of Memory: What Authoritarian Symbols and Records Can Tell Us,” to help people navigate narratives through textual analysis and comparisons with other nations. The four-day series is to begin on Thursday next week with a discussion between commission Chairwoman Yang Tsui (楊翠), Polish-language translator Lin Wei-yun (林蔚昀), and Polish author and artist Pawel Gorecki comparing
TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT: A US Air Force KC-135 tanker came less than 1,000 feet of an EVA plane and was warned off by a Taipei air traffic controller, a report said A US aerial refueling aircraft came very close to an EVA Airways jet in the airspace over southern Taiwan, a military aviation news Web site said. A report published by Alert 5 on Tuesday said that automatic dependent surveillance–broadcast (ADS-B) data captured by planfinder.net on Wednesday last week showed a US Air Force KC-135 tanker “coming less than 1,000 feet [305m] vertically with EVA Air flight BR225 as both aircraft crossed path south of Taiwan” that morning. The report included an audio recording of a female controller from the Taipei air traffic control center telling the unidentified aircraft that it was
MOVING OUT: A former professor said that rent and early education costs in Taipei are the nation’s highest, which makes it difficult for young people to start families The population of Taipei last year fell to the lowest in 23 years due to high rent, more transportation options and the expansion of northern cities into a single metropolis, academics and city officials said on Monday. Data released this month by the Ministry of the Interior showed that the capital was home to 2,602,418 people last year, down 42,623 from 2019. The decline is second only to 1993, when the population fell by 42,828 people, while Taipei’s population was the lowest it has been since 1997. Taipei saw the biggest drop among the six special municipalities, while Taoyuan led the group in
‘EFFECTIVE DETERRENCE’: If the Biden administration suspends arms sales to Taiwan, the military could still ready a nimble fighting force for defense, an analyst said The “US Strategic Framework for the Indo-Pacific” last week sparked debate among analysts after US President Donald Trump declassified the document 20 years ahead of schedule. Trump on Tuesday last week released the document that had governed US strategic action in the region since the US leader approved its use in 2018. The document, which outlines US priorities in the region, emphasizes the importance of defending Taiwan against military aggression and facilitating the country’s development of asymmetric strategies and capabilities. The overall directive of the document is for the US to prevent China from establishing sustained air and sea dominance inside the first
RSS