Two Taiwanese men who were jailed in Eswatini after being convicted of attempting to smuggle rhino horns out of the southern African country in 2017 were repatriated on Thursday evening to serve the remainder of their sentence.
Escorted by a six-member team from the Investigation Bureau, the men, surnamed Hsiao (蕭) and Chen (陳), arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 7:10pm after a transfer flight from Bangkok.
After Hsiao and Chen tested negative for COVID-19 in polymerase chain reaction tests upon arrival, they were transported to Taichung Detention Center, where they are to quarantine before being transferred to prison.
Photo: CNA
After serving five years of an 11-year jail sentence, the men were granted commuted sentences, which end at the end of the year, by the Eswatini government, the bureau said.
The men had attempted to smuggle NT$72 million (US$2.54 million at the current exchange rate) worth of rhino horns in their luggage from Eswatini to Taiwan, the bureau said.
An Agence de Presse Africaine report at the time said they were on Feb. 25, 2017, apprehended at King Mswati III International Airport with 24 pieces of chopped rhino horns from four killed animals.
Their repatriation was made possible by a bilateral prisoner-transfer agreement signed between Taiwan and the Kingdom of Eswatini in February 2019, in the first such agreement Taiwan has signed with an African country, the bureau said.
Under the pact, convicted offenders can be repatriated to serve out their sentences, while enforcement of the remaining prison time would be overseen by their home country, with authorities informing their counterparts when an inmate has completed their term or received conditional release.
Following the prisoner-transfer agreement and pleas from their family members that Hsiao and Chen could serve their jail terms in Taiwan, the bureau said that the Ministry of Justice began seeking their repatriation in 2020, but the plan was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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