Fraud Suspects From Taiwan Have Confessed, Chinese State Media Reports

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/23/world/asia/taiwan-wire-fraud-suspects-china.html

Version 0 of 1.

HONG KONG — Forty-five fraud suspects from Taiwan who are suspected of cheating mainland Chinese by telephone from a base in Kenya have admitted guilt and will soon face trial, according to the Chinese police, the state news media reported on Friday.

The suspects were deported from Kenya to China this month, stirring concern in Taiwan that Beijing was using its international clout to control the fate of the accused.

Officials from Taiwan visited the Beijing detention center where the suspects were being held on Thursday, and they met with Chinese officials to discuss visitation rights and treatment of the detainees. Only some of the suspects have seen a lawyer, according to Xinhua, China’s state-run news service.

Some of the suspects had been tried for fraud in Kenya and acquitted, while the others had not yet faced trial when they were deported. Because the victims of the purported telephone hoaxes were overwhelmingly from the mainland, Chinese officials demanded that the suspects be sent there, along with Chinese citizens also accused of involvement in the alleged fraud ring.

The case prompted protest from Taiwan, particularly after some suspects were filmed barricading themselves in a cell in Kenya to prevent their deportation to China. Taiwan is self-governed, but China claims the island as part of its territory.

Xinhua accused the suspects of impersonating police officers in telephone calls to people in China, who were then tricked into transferring money into accounts controlled by the callers’ organization abroad. Victims in China have complained of losing huge sums with little chance of getting the money back.

The case has highlighted the differences in law enforcement in authoritarian China and democratic Taiwan. China, arguing its case for bringing the suspects to the mainland, has complained that conviction rates for telecommunications fraud are low in Taiwan. Officials from Taiwan have responded that producing sufficient evidence to ensure conviction can be difficult in such cross-border investigations.

Last week, Malaysia sent 20 suspects in a similar case of telecommunications fraud to Taiwan, where they were initially released, prompting complaints from China. Eighteen of the group were later detained, Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported on Thursday.

Among the group of suspects sent to China, two were shown confessing on state television last week, days after their arrival in Beijing.