Taiwan's Gold Apollo denies manufacturing pagers used in Lebanon explosions

Taiwan's Gold Apollo said Wednesday that the pagers used in the detonations in Lebanon on Tuesday were not made by the company but by a firm called BAC, which has a license to use its brand.

At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 injured when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon on Tuesday.

Images of the destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back consistent with those made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo.

"The product was not ours. It only carried our brand," Gold Apollo founder and president Hsu Ching-Kuang told reporters at the company’s offices in New Taipei City, northern Taiwan, on Wednesday.

The company said in a statement that the AR-924 model was produced and sold by BAC.

"We only provide brand trademark authorization and have no involvement in the design or manufacturing of this product," the statement said.

Hsu initially said the company with the license was based in Europe but later declined to comment on BAC’s location.

While Hsu was meeting with reporters, police officials arrived at the company.

Hezbollah fighters began using pagers believing they could evade Israeli tracking of their locations, two sources familiar with the group’s operations told Reuters earlier this year.

Hsu said he did not know how the pagers could have been rigged to explode.

Hezbollah said it was conducting a “security and scientific investigation” into the causes of the blasts.

Israel's Mossad spy agency planted explosives inside 5,000 pagers imported by Hezbollah months before Tuesday’s detonations, according to a senior Lebanese security source and another source.

Hsu said Gold Apollo was also a victim of the incident.

“We may not be a large company, but we are a responsible one,” he said. “This is very embarrassing.”

 

Reuters