Cambodia sends 13 Taiwanese telecom fraud suspects to China

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/09/20
By: Liu Te-chang, Tang Pei-chun and S.C. Chang

Taipei, Sept. 20 (CNA) The government has expressed its “grave concern” about Cambodia sending 13 Taiwanese to China on suspicion of involvement in an international telecom fraud ring, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Tuesday.

The 13 were among 64 suspects arrested Aug. 30 during a police raid in Cambodia. Taiwan immediately sent its Ho Chi Minh office director, Liang Kuang-chung (梁光中), from Vietnam to Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, to negotiate terms for repatriating the Taiwanese suspects to Taiwan.

But under pressure from China, who claimed the victims of the fraud ring were all Chinese citizens, the Cambodian authorities ignored Liang’s request to visit the suspects and take them back to Taiwan, instead deporting them on a China Southern Airlines flight bound for Nanjing Tuesday.

Taiwanese businessmen based in Cambodia told CNA that they had tried to offer assistance to the Taiwanese suspects, but Cambodia would not allow them to visit.     [FULL  STORY]