Taiwan questions president of pager company linked to Hezbollah explosions

The president and founder of the Taiwanese pager company linked to pagers used by Hezbollah has been questioned by prosecutors and released, as the hunt for the origins of devices that detonated across Lebanon this week spreads across the globe, Report informs referring to The Guardian.

Gold Apollo’s president, Hsu Ching-kuang, has said his company did not manufacture the pagers used in the attack on Tuesday, and that they were made by a Budapest-based company BAC Consulting KFT which has a licence to use its brand.

He was questioned in Taiwan on the same day that Icom, a Japanese communication equipment maker whose walkie-talkies are thought to have been detonated in a second wave of attacks on Wednesday, said the units used may have been a discontinued model containing modified batteries.

At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon on Tuesday, in an attack the Iran-backed group blamed on Israel. A day later, 25 people were killed and more than 450 wounded when walkie-talkies exploded in supermarkets, on streets and at funerals.

In Taiwan, Hsu declined to answer reporters questions as he left a Taipei prosecutors office late on Thursday. Prosecutors had also questioned a woman connected to a different company – according to local media – a representative connected to BAC Consulting KFT who had set up a company based in Taipei called “Apollo Systems”.

Apollo Systems was registered in April this year, and its listed address in Taipei’s Neihu district was among four locations searched by investigators, including Gold Apollo’s office in New Taipei.