Taiwan closes exploding pagers case, says not made by Taiwanese firms

TAIPEI (Reuters) -Taiwan on Monday said it had closed a probe into pagers that exploded in Lebanon in September and caused a deadly blow to Iran-backed Hezbollah, saying no Taiwanese citizens or companies were involved.

Israeli media reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed responsibility for the attack during a cabinet meeting, telling ministers that senior defence officials and political figures were opposed to the detonation of the pagers but that he went ahead with the operation.

Security sources have previously said the pagers carried the name of Taiwan-based Gold Apollo, a company which has asserted that it did not make them. Taiwan's government has also said the pagers were not made in Taiwan.

Taipei prosecutors, who were investigating the case, said in a statement the AR-924 pager model that exploded in Lebanon was manufactured, traded, and shipped by a firm called Frontier Group Entity, and made outside of Taiwan. They added, however, that Gold Apollo had authorised the company to use the Apollo trademark.

"There is no evidence indicating that any domestic manufacturers or individuals were accomplices in the relevant explosions, violating the Counter-Terrorism Financing Act, or engaging in other illegal activities," the prosecutors said in a statement.

"No concrete evidence of criminal activity has been discovered in this case, nor have any specific individuals been implicated in any criminal activity, following a comprehensive investigation."

Prosecutors have previously confirmed that they questioned Gold Apollo's president and founder Hsu Ching-kuang and a woman called Teresa Wu, the sole employee of a company called Apollo Systems Ltd.

In their statement, the prosecutors said Wu acted as a liaison with Frontier, but there was no evidence she "had prior knowledge or participated in any conspiracy or collaboration related to the explosion incidents".

The prosecutors said there was some information they did not know, including the exact identities of the Frontier employees Wu communicated with.

It said one person was called "T" and was presumably the head of Frontier, while another was called "M" and was presumably the sales director.

Gold Apollo told Reuters it had also just seen the prosecutors statement, and that it was not immediately able to comment further.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Faith Hung; Editing by Edwina Gibbs and Toby Chopra)