Media: Taiwan denies local firms' involvement in Lebanon pager explosions

Taiwan announced on November 11 that it has concluded its investigation into the explosions of pagers in Lebanon in September, which resulted in a deadly attack linked to the Iran-backed group Hezbollah.

Authorities confirmed that no Taiwanese citizens or companies were involved in the incident, Caliber.Az reports, citing Reuters. 

Reports from Israeli media indicated that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had claimed responsibility for the attack during a cabinet meeting. Netanyahu revealed that while several senior defence and political figures opposed the detonation of the pagers, he proceeded with the operation.

Security sources had previously suggested that the pagers were associated with Taiwan-based Gold Apollo, a company that denied manufacturing them. The Taiwanese government also asserted that the pagers were not produced in Taiwan.

Taipei prosecutors clarified in a statement that the AR-924 pager model, which exploded in Lebanon, was produced, traded, and shipped by a firm called Frontier Group Entity, and was made outside Taiwan. However, they noted that Gold Apollo had authorised Frontier to use the Apollo trademark.

"There is no evidence suggesting that any domestic manufacturers or individuals were involved in the explosions, violated the Counter-Terrorism Financing Act, or participated in any other illicit activities," the prosecutors said.

"No concrete evidence of criminal activity has been found, and no individuals have been implicated following a thorough investigation."

The investigation had previously involved questioning Gold Apollo's president and founder, Hsu Ching-kuang, as well as a woman named Teresa Wu, the sole employee of a company called Apollo Systems Ltd. Prosecutors explained that Wu acted as a liaison with Frontier, but no evidence was found to suggest she had prior knowledge of, or participated in, any conspiracy or collaboration regarding the explosions.

While some details remain unclear, such as the identities of the Frontier employees Wu communicated with, the prosecutors stated that one individual was believed to be "T", likely the head of Frontier, while another, identified as "M", was presumed to be the sales director.

Gold Apollo responded to the prosecutors' statement, saying it had only just reviewed the findings and was not in a position to provide further comment at this time.

To recall, numerous people were killed and thousands more injured, many seriously, after communication devices, some used by the armed group Hezbollah, dramatically exploded across Lebanon on September 17-18.

In the latest round of blasts, exploding walkie-talkies killed 20 and injured at least 450 people, according to Lebanon's health ministry. The explosions occurred in the vicinity of a large crowd that had gathered for the funerals of four victims of pager blasts.

By Aghakazim Guliyev