A Beijing court yesterday sentenced 29 people from Taiwan who had been deported from Spain to up to 14 years in prison for telecom fraud, part of a series of deportations decried by Taiwan as an abuse of human rights.
In recent years, hundreds of Taiwanese suspected of telecom fraud have been deported to China, sometimes forcibly, from countries including Kenya, Cambodia and Armenia, the Taiwanese government said.
China has defended the deportations, saying that they were suspected of defrauding Chinese people and so should be tried in Chinese courts.
A recent judgement by a Beijing court said that the suspects had defrauded people living in China by calling them from their base in Spain and claiming to be Chinese law enforcement officials.
VICTIMS’ LOSSES
A total of 14 victims were defrauded out of more than 6.17 million yuan (US$943,375), it said.
Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Deputy Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said that more information on the case is being sought, and urged China to cooperate in fighting crime.
The deportations have arisen from the “one China” policy of most countries, under which they maintain formal relations only with the People’s Republic of China rather than Taiwan, with governments deciding to send them to China for trial.
COMPLAINTS
Taiwan has complained about a lack of due process and expressed concern about mistreatment of its people in Chinese jails.
Chinese authorities have sought to contain an explosion of telecom crime that Beijing says has led to huge financial losses, with callers often impersonating officials or authority figures, and preying on older people, students or the unemployed.
The fraud has spread overseas, with Chinese speakers recruited in Taiwan setting up operations in East Africa or Southeast Asia.
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