Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand.
At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo.
A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo.
"The product was not ours. It was only that it had our brand on it,' Gold Apollo founder and president Hsu Ching-kuang (許清光) told reporters at the company's offices in New Taipei City.
The company said in a statement that the AR-924 model was produced and sold by BAC.
"We only provide brand trademark authorization and have no involvement in the design or manufacturing of this product," the statement said.
Hsu earlier said that the firm with the license was based in Europe, but later declined to comment on BAC's location.
While Hsu was meeting with reporters, police arrived at the company.
Hezbollah fighters began using pagers in the belief they would be able to evade Israeli tracking of their locations, two sources familiar with the group's operations told Reuters this year.
Hsu said he did not know how the pagers could have been rigged to explode.
Iran-backed Hezbollah said it was carrying out a "security and scientific investigation" into the causes of the blasts.
Israel's Mossad spy agency planted explosives inside 5,000 pagers imported by Lebanese group Hezbollah months before the detonations, according to a senior Lebanese security source and another source.
Hsu said Gold Apollo was also a victim of the incident.
"We may not be a large company but we are a responsible one," he said. "This is very embarrassing."
The Ministry of Economic Affairs said it has no record of direct export to Lebanon and would continue to assist the company in its follow-up investigations.
The batteries used in the pagers were ordinary double A batteries, it added.
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