TAIPEI (Reuters) – Prosecutors in Taiwan said on Thursday they have so far questioned four people as witnesses in their investigation into a Taiwanese company linked to pagers that exploded in Lebanon last week in a deadly blow to Hezbollah.
Security sources said Israel was responsible for the pager explosions that raised the stakes in a growing conflict between the two sides. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement.
How and when the beepers were weaponized and remotely detonated remains a public mystery. The search for answers takes place in Taiwan, Bulgaria, Norway and Romania.
Taiwan-based Gold Apollo said last week that it did not manufacture the devices used in the attack itself, and that Hungary-based BAC, where the pagers were traced, had a license to use its brand. The Taiwanese government also said the pagers were not made in Taiwan.
A spokesman for the Taipei Shilin District Public Prosecutor’s Office, which is leading the investigation into Gold Apollo, said that in addition to the two people questioned last week, a current and a former employee had also been questioned as witnesses.
“We are processing this case quickly and aim to find a solution as soon as possible,” the spokesperson said. He did not want to name the people questioned and did not want to say whether the Public Prosecution Service plans to question more people.
Last week, prosecutors questioned Hsu Ching-kuang, the president and founder of Gold Apollo, and Teresa Wu, the sole employee of a company called Apollo Systems.
Gold Apollo has not yet commented on that investigation and did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
Reuters could not reach Wu for comment. Neither answered reporters’ questions as they left the prosecutor’s office last week.
(Reporting by Faith Hung; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
