TAIPEI: Taiwan investigators said Monday there was no evidence that Taiwanese individuals or firms were involved in a deadly September attack targeting Hezbollah communications devices which exploded in Lebanon. “Our investigation has verified that no nationals or domestic companies were involved in Lebanon’s high-profile pager detonation incidents,” Taiwan prosecutors said in a statement. Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Sunday he “greenlighted the pager operation”.

Exploding pagers and walkie-talkies killed nearly 40 people and wounded nearly 3,000, and preceded Israel’s ongoing military operation in Lebanon which has killed thousands more. Questions and speculation have swirled over where the devices came from and how they were supplied to Hezbollah. The New York Times reported previously that the Zionist entity had inserted explosive material into a shipment of pagers from Taiwan’s Gold Apollo, citing American and other anonymous officials. Gold Apollo has staunchly denied producing the devices.

Taiwan investigators on Monday cleared the company, its chairman and its employees of any involvement. “No concrete evidence of criminal activity has been discovered in this case, nor have any specific individuals been implicated in any criminal activity,” said the prosecutors’ office in Taipei’s Shilin district. As a result, the case was closed, the office said. Gold Apollo, which is based in Xizhi district in New Taipei City, did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment.

The prosecutors said they found that the AR-924 model pager had been designed, manufactured and shipped “outside Taiwan” by the “multinational group” Frontier Group Entity. Gold Apollo had authorized Frontier Group Entity to use its trademark under an agreement signed with a subsidiary of that company in June 2022, prosecutors said. 

Investigators did not say where Frontier Group Entity is based or identify its subsidiary. “There are no import or export records of AR-924 model pagers being exported from Taiwan to other countries or regions,” the prosecutors said.

Gold Apollo had initially pointed the finger at its Hungary-based partner BAC Consulting KFT, which the Taiwanese company had allowed to use its trademark. But a Hungarian government spokesman said BAC Consulting KFT was “a trading intermediary, with no manufacturing or operational site in Hungary”. — AFP