94 Taiwanese telecom fraud suspects extradited from Spain arrive in Beijing
- Group accused of defrauding Chinese nationals over the phone
- Repatriation likely to upset Taipei, which maintains its citizens should be sent back to Taiwan for trial
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Chinese authorities said on Friday that a plane carrying 94 Taiwanese suspected of telecom fraud had landed in Beijing from Spain, in the first large-scale extradition of fraud suspects from Europe.
The repatriation of the group – who are suspected of defrauding Chinese nationals over the phone from Spain – is likely to heighten cross-strait tensions as Taipei maintains its citizens should be sent back to Taiwan for investigation and trial.
Beijing said the fraud suspects had been rounded up in Spain following raids by Spanish and Chinese police in 2016 and that because all the victims were from mainland China, they should be extradited there to face trial.
The case worked its way through Spanish courts for two years until Spain ruled all the suspects could be extradited to mainland China, the statement said.
Beijing sees Taiwan as a wayward island and vows to bring it back into its fold by force if necessary, but the self-ruled island’s President Tsai Ing-wen has refused to acknowledge that position, causing relations to deteriorate since she came to power in 2016.
Spain has already extradited 225 fraud suspects to China, including 218 Taiwanese, the Ministry of Public Security in Beijing said in a statement.
Countries from Kenya to Indonesia have agreed in recent years to deport Taiwanese scammers to mainland China despite protests from Taipei.
Nearly 100 Taiwanese suspected of running telephone scams were arrested in Slovenia and Croatia in January.
