Taiwan expresses concern over its nationals being sent to China

Taipei, July 2 (CNA) Taiwan has expressed its concern to the European Union (EU) after a Czech Republic high court recently upheld a lower court's decision to send eight Taiwanese fraud suspects to China, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said Tuesday.

MOFA deputy spokesperson Joanne Ou (歐江安) said the eight Taiwanese were arrested in Prague in Jan. 12, 2018 for their alleged involvement in telecommunications fraud targeting Chinese citizens.

Their arrests were made after Chinese police authorities asked Interpol to issue a red notice in the Czech Republic.

A red notice is an alert circulated by Interpol that facilitates worldwide police cooperation by communicating information about crimes and criminals in a member state.

A district court in Prague first ruled in August 2018 that the eight were to be extradited to China, after being convinced by guarantees from Chinese authorities that the suspects will be fairly tried and will not be subject to capital punishment.

The suspects appealed the decision to the Prague High Court, but the court ruled in mid-June to uphold the decision, according to Ou.

Ou said the Taiwanese suspects are now considering other legal remedies and related proceedings are still ongoing.

The ministry has also expressed its concerns to the EU, in which the Czech Republic is a member, that these Taiwanese citizens' rights might be infringed upon if they were sent to China, instead of their home country Taiwan.

Taiwan's representative office in Prague had previously called the Czech Ministry of Justice's attention to China's poor record on human rights and tried to make the case that Taiwanese suspects should be sent back to Taiwan for a judicial investigation in accordance with the principle of nationality, but to no avail.