Taipei, 21 (CNA) Eighteen out of 20 fraud suspects who were deported back to Taiwan from Malaysia last Friday were placed in detention Thursday after their release last week sparked controversy in Taiwan as well as in China, where many of their alleged victims reside.
A court in Taichung, central Taiwan granted prosecutors' request for the detention of main suspect Liu and 17 others. The prosecutors argued before the court that there was strong evidence against the 18 suspects and, unless detained, they would likely collude with each other to make their confessions match during trial and could even engage in more fraud.
The other two suspects who were deported back from Malaysia were ordered by the court to not leave the country or go out to sea pending their possible indictments and trial.
The case is being handled by the Taichung District Prosecutors' Office as many of the suspects come from its jurisdiction in the central Taiwan city.
The prosecutors said that the 20 suspects were summoned for questioning Wednesday, after they received the relevant evidentiary documents from Chinese authorities through the cross-Taiwan Strait legal assistance channel.
The suspects were sent back from Malaysia late on April 15 at Taiwan's request, amid fears that they would be taken to China to face legal proceedings there.
Controversies erupted, however, as they were released shortly after returning to Taiwan. Government officials said that they could not be detained because evidence and records of their alleged criminal activities were not handed over to the Taiwanese authorities at the same time.
The district prosecutors' office explained that all of the evidence, including telephones and computers, was handed over to China by Malaysian police before the latter decided to deport the suspects back to Taiwan, leading to "the separation of suspects from evidence" that made the detention of the suspects upon their arrival impossible.
(By Chao Li-yen and Elizabeth Hsu)
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