Taiwan officials in Beijing for detainee negotiations

2016/04/21

A delegation of Taiwan officials arrived April 20 in Beijing to visit detained 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.

While in the Malaysian case, which saw ROC nationals sent home, the MOJ hopes the two sides investigate separately, share evidence and assist each other as required.

The MOJ said it is also necessary to set up different measures for various criminal cases that both sides can claim jurisdiction over and in the process, step up bilateral cooperation in crime-fighting.

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=244013&ctNode=2194&mp=9)