Taiwan Prosecutor's Office Examines Gold Apollo Boss To Searches Company For Lebanese Pager Explosion

UNSPLASH/Lisanto ILLUSTRATION

JAKARTA - Taiwan's Economy Minister confirmed that the components used in thousands of pagers detonated in Lebanon as a deadly attack against Hezbollah were not made in Taiwan

Taiwan-based Gold Apollo previously said it did not produce the device used in the attack. Budapest-based BAC company, where the pager is tracked, has a license to use its brand.

It is unclear how or when the pager was used as a weapon so that it could be detonated remotely. The same thing happened to hundreds of radio holding walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah that exploded on Wednesday, September 18, in the second wave of attacks. The two incidents killed 37 people and injured about 3,000 people in Lebanon.

"The components (mainly) low class IC (integrated circuits) and batteries," Taiwan's Economy Minister Kuo Jyh-huei told reporters.

"I can say with certainty that it was not made in Taiwan," Jyh-huei stressed that no pager components were made in Taiwan.

Security sources said Israel was responsible for the explosion of the pager on Tuesday, September 17 increasing the risk of conflict between the two sides. Israel has not directly commented on the attack.

Taiwan's foreign minister Lin Chia-lung, who also spoke to reporters in parliament, replied "no" when asked if he had met with Israeli besa ambassadors to express his concern about the case.

"We ask for our mission abroad to raise their security awareness and will exchange relevant information with other countries," he said.

As Taiwanese authorities investigated the potential link between a broad global technology supply chain and the devices used in the attacks in Lebanon, the president and founder of Gold Apollo, Hsu Ching-kuang, was interrogated by prosecutors until late at night on Thursday, September 19.

Another person who is also at the prosecutor's office is total Wu, the only company employee named Apollo System, who did not speak to reporters when she left on Thursday night.

Hsu said someone named harus telah menjadi salah satu kontaknya untuk kesepakatan dengan BAC.

A spokesman for the Shilin District Attorney's office in Taipei told Reuters it had interrogated two people as witnesses and was granted permission to conduct searches at four locations of their company in Taiwan as part of its investigation.

"We will try to determine whether there is a possibility of involvement of these Taiwanese companies as soon as possible, to ensure the safety of the country and its people," the spokesman said.