Taiwan Today
Date: April 20, 2016
A delegation of Taiwan officials arrived April 20 in Beijing to visit detained
Chen Wen-chi (right), director-general of the MOJ Department of International and Cross-Strait Legal Affairs, leads the Taiwan delegation to the boarding gate for a flight to Beijing April 20 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. (CNA)
Republic of China (Taiwan) nationals forcibly deported from Kenya and launch negotiations with their mainland Chinese counterparts on establishing procedures for handling any future criminal cases involving peoples from the two sides of the Taiwan Strait in third jurisdictions.
Headed by Chen Wen-chi, director-general of the Department of International and Cross-Strait Legal Affairs under the Ministry of Justice, the 10-member group comprises officials from the MOJ, the Criminal Investigation Bureau, the Mainland Affairs Council and the Straits Exchange Foundation.
The delegation’s scheduled three-day trip follows the forcible deportation of 45 ROC nationals to mainland China by the Kenyan police earlier this month. In addition, 32 ROC nationals are detained in Malaysia as part of a telecoms fraud investigation. Beijing is said to be urging their deportation to mainland China after the return of 20 other suspects to Taiwan last week.
In the Kenya case, the MOJ called on Beijing to adhere to the past pattern of cooperation established five years ago after the Philippines deported 14 ROC nationals to mainland China over Taiwan’s objections. At that time, prosecutors from both sides investigated the case and collected evidence together. The deportees were repatriated to Taiwan five months later and tried under the nation’s criminal code. [FULL STORY]
