Taiwan tech firm says it did not make pagers that exploded

It says devices produced by Hungarian company, but latter also denies making them

- Yip Wai Yee

Taiwanese tech company Gold Apollo has denied manufacturing the pagers used by Hezbollah members in Lebanon that exploded on Sept 17, after images revealed that its brand label was pasted on the backs of the detonated models.

"The product was not ours. It was only that it had our brand on it," Mr Hsu Ching-kuang, the company's founder and president, told reporters on Sept 18 at the firm's office, which is situated in a business park a 30-minute drive from the Taiwanese capital of Taipei.

Instead, the company that manufactures wireless communication devices said in a statement that the pagers were produced and sold by BAC Consulting, based in Budapest, Hungary.

BAC had the right to use Gold Apollo's branding under a licensing agreement.

But BAC later told a US network that while it worked with Gold Apollo, it did not make pagers.

Meanwhile, a Hungarian government spokesman said that BAC "is a trading intermediary, with no manufacturing or operational site in Hungary".

He said the case "poses no national security risk" and added that Hungary was cooperating "with all relevant international partner agencies and organisations" in further investigations.

In Taiwan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said it had no record of Gold Apollo pagers being shipped to Lebanon.

The company primarily exported its beepers to European and American markets, and there had been no reports of explosions related to those devices, the ministry added in a statement on Sept 18.