Taiwanese Gold Apollo CEO interrogated over Hezbollah-linked pager explosions
Shafaq News/ Late Thursday, the president and founder of a Taiwanese pager company associated with the detonation of thousands of pagers aimed at Hezbollah in Lebanon was interrogated by prosecutors and subsequently released.
Hsu Ching-kuang, the head of Gold Apollo, based in Taiwan, stated that his company did not produce the devices involved in the attack; rather, they were manufactured by a Budapest-based firm, BAC, which holds a license to use Gold Apollo's brand.
Images of the destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters revealed a design and labels consistent with those produced by Gold Apollo.
As Hsu left one of the Taipei prosecutor's offices late Thursday, declining to answer reporters' questions. Attempts to reach the prosecutor's office before Friday's opening hours went unanswered. So far, Taipei prosecutors have not provided any updates regarding their investigation into Gold Apollo.
Also seen leaving the prosecutor's office was Teresa Wu, the sole employee of a company called Apollo Systems Ltd., who chose not to speak to the media. Hsu mentioned earlier this week that Teresa was one of his contacts concerning the deal with Hungary-based firm BAC.
Records indicate that Wu founded Apollo Systems in April 2024. The exact nature of the relationship between her company and BAC remains unclear.
The Taiwanese government has announced that it is looking into the incident, with police making several visits to Hsu’s modest office in New Taipei City.
Thousands of pager devices and hundreds of ICOM V82 radios exploded across several regions in Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday due to Israeli cyber attacks, killing 32 people and injuring more than 3,450 others. Most of the casualties were Hezbollah members.
According to a senior Lebanese security source, “explosives inside the devices were planted by Israel's Mossad spy agency,” with Hezbollah vowing to retaliate.
Addressing the explosions in a televised speech on Thursday, Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah announced the formation of multiple internal investigation committees to examine all aspects of the incident, stating that the group had already reached "a near-definitive conclusion" about the cause of the explosions.
