A representative of the Taiwanese government John C Chen (centre)
addresses the media in Nairobi, in an appeal to the Kenyan government to
release five arrested Taiwanese nationals in August 2016. FILE PHOTO |
NMG
Beijing/Taipei,
A Beijing
court on Thursday handed down jail sentences of up to 15 years to 50
people deported from Kenya for telecoms fraud, including 22 from
self-ruled Taiwan.
Taiwan’s government criticised the case, saying China had ignored vital evidence.
Over
the past two years countries including Kenya, Spain, Vietnam and
Cambodia have deported hundreds of people from Taiwan to China for
telecoms fraud, sparking accusations from Taipei that Beijing was
effectively kidnapping its citizens.
China has defended
the deportations, saying the crimes were committed against people in
China and that as Taiwan is a part of China it was natural foreign
governments should send these people to China rather than Taiwan.
In
a brief statement, the Beijing court said that the 50 were given jail
terms ranging from one year and nine months to 15 years and had also
been given unspecified fines.
Separate batches
It did not give specific details of the sentences for the 22 people from Taiwan. The cases were tried in two separate batches.
Taiwan’s
China policy-making Mainland Affairs Council said Taiwan and China had
initially agreed to cooperate in investigating the Kenya case, but China
had gone back on its word.
The outside world could
only believe justice had been done if the case had fully considered all
the evidence and gone through proper legal procedure, the council added.
“In this case, we obtained intelligence on the criminal suspects behind the scenes,” it said.
“We
again call on the mainland China side to cooperate with our public
security organs, investigate the origins and not allow the masterminds
behind the scenes to get away with it.”
Deported groups
On at least two occasions last year Kenya deported groups of Taiwanese to China.
In
one case, a Kenyan magistrate said the Taiwanese should be repatriated
to their place of origin, Taiwan, but the Kenyan government sent them to
China.
Kenya, like most countries, only has diplomatic
relations with China. Beijing considers democratic Taiwan a wayward
province, ineligible for formal ties with other nations.
Chinese
authorities have sought to contain an explosion of telecom crime it
says has led to huge financial losses, with callers often impersonating
officials or authority figures and preying on the elderly, students or
the unemployed.
Chinese speakers
The
fraud has spread overseas, with Chinese speakers recruited in
neighbouring Taiwan increasingly setting up operations in East Africa or
Southeast Asia.
The deportations have come as
relations between Beijing and Taipei have deteriorated, with China
suspecting Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen of pushing for the island’s
formal independence.
She says she wants to maintain peace with China but will defend Taiwan’s security and democracy
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