Middle East: for justice, Taiwan is not involved in the explosion of pagers targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon

Pager explosions targeting members of the Shiite movement Hezbollah left 39 dead and nearly 3,000 injured, including civilians, in mid-September in Lebanon. If the Israeli Prime Minister admitted for the first time on Sunday that he had given the green light to this attack, Taiwanese prosecutors declared on Monday that there was no proof of the involvement of Taiwanese companies or nationals in this explosion of electronic devices.

“Our investigation verified that no nationals or national companies were involved in the beeper explosions that occurred in Lebanon,” Taiwanese prosecutors said in a statement. The investigation was therefore closed without further action, they indicated.

Booby-trapped transmission devices – pagers, walkie-talkies – used by members of Hezbollah were exploded on September 17 and 18 in the southern suburbs of Beirut as well as in the south and east of Lebanon, strongholds of the Islamist Hezbollah movement.

Questions then emerged about the origin of these electronic devices and how Israel was able to carry out this operation.

According to a New York Times investigation, Israel introduced explosive materials into a shipment of beepers from the Taiwanese company Gold Apollo. Gold Apollo, which has always denied having produced these devices, was exonerated on Monday by Taiwanese investigators.

Its director defended himself by telling the Guardian that the pagers in question were produced in Europe, by its Hungarian partner BAC, which had the right to use the brand.

“No concrete evidence of criminal activity was found in this case, and no one was involved in any criminal act,” said the Xizhi District Prosecutors' Office in New Taipei City, where the company headquarters.