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Taiwanese prosecutors late Thursday questioned and later released the chairman and founder of a pager company linked to the bombing of thousands of the devices in an attack on Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Taiwan-based Gold Apollo CEO and founder Shu-Ching Kuang said the company did not manufacture the devices used in the attack but rather were manufactured by Budapest-based BAC, which has a license to use its brand.
Photos of the destroyed radios analysed by Reuters showed a design and labels on the back that matched those made by Gold Apollo.
Xu declined to answer reporters’ questions as he left a Taipei prosecutor’s office late Thursday. Attempts to contact the prosecutor’s office before business hours Friday went unanswered.
The Taipei Public Prosecution Service has not yet issued any statements regarding its investigation into the Gold Apollo case.
A woman named Teresa Wu, the only employee of a company called Apollo Systems Ltd., was also seen leaving the office late yesterday without speaking to reporters.
Shaw said this week that an employee named Teresa was one of the people he contacted about the deal with Hungary-based BAC.
Company records show Wu founded Apollo Systems in April. The nature of her company’s relationship with BAE Systems is not yet clear.
The Taiwanese government said it was investigating what happened, and police made several visits to Shaw’s company headquarters, in a small, modest office in New Taipei City, next to the capital.
Twelve people were killed and nearly 3,000 others injured when walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah members exploded simultaneously across Lebanon on Tuesday.
According to a senior Lebanese security source and another source, the explosives inside the devices were planted by the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad.
Hezbollah has vowed revenge against Israel, which has not claimed responsibility for the bombings. The two sides have been exchanging fire across the border since the Gaza conflict erupted in October.
