Morning Chronicle - Taiwan, Hungary deny making Hezbollah pagers

The New York Times, citing American and other anonymous officials, reported that Israel had inserted explosive material into a shipment of pagers from Taiwan's Gold Apollo.

Taiwanese prosecutors launched an investigation.

Gold Apollo denied producing the devices and instead pointed the finger at its Budapest-based partner BAC Consulting KFT.

But Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said the company "is a trading intermediary, with no manufacturing or operational site in Hungary".

"The referenced devices have never been in Hungary," Kovacs said on X, formerly Twitter.

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

- 'Not our products' -

Earlier Wednesday, Gold Apollo head Hsu Ching-kuang said the pagers were "100 percent not" made in Taiwan.

"They are not our products from beginning to end. How can we produce products that are not ours?" Hsu told reporters in Taipei.

The company said in a separate statement that it has established a "long-term partnership" with the Hungarian company to use its trademark and the model mentioned in media reports "is produced and sold by BAC".

Taiwan's economic affairs ministry said Gold Apollo's pagers made in Taiwan only have "a receiving function" and the capacity of their built-in battery "is about that of an ordinary AA battery that is not possible to explode to cause death or injury".

"After reviewing media reports and pictures, we think it's very questionable that (the model used) is the company's product," the ministry said, adding that there is no record of the company directly exporting to Lebanon.

But BAC Consulting CEO Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono told US broadcaster NBC News that her company worked with Gold Apollo but did not make pagers.

"I don't make the pagers. I am just the intermediate. I think you got it wrong," NBC cited Barsony-Arcidiacono as saying on the phone.

Barsony-Arcidiacono did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.

The explosions in Lebanon killed 12 people, including two children, and wounded up to 2,800 others.

Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah has blamed Israel for the attack.

- Sole employee -

At BAC Consulting's registered postal address in a Budapest suburb, a woman there told reporters that the two-storey semi-detached building belongs to a company providing virtual business addresses.

Barsony-Arcidiacono appears to be the only employee of the company founded in 2022, according to legal documents consulted by AFP, which also report an annual revenue of 210 million forints ($590,000) and profit of around 18 million forints.

On an archived version of a currently inaccessible website, the consultancy described itself as "agents of change with a network of consultants", while Barsony-Arcidiacono touted her experience as a "strategic advisor" for international organisations.

The Times reported about 3,000 pagers were ordered from Gold Apollo, mostly its AR924 model.

"Our company only provides the brand trademark authorisation and is not involved in the design or manufacturing of this product," Gold Apollo said.

The company declined to comment further, citing ongoing investigations.

"We have assigned the case to the chief prosecutor of the national security team to actively investigate. Our office will clarify the facts of the case as soon as possible," Taipei's Shilin District Prosecutors Office said in a statement.

"If there is any illegality involved, it will be severely punished in accordance with the law," the office added.

A source close to Hezbollah, asking not to be identified, previously told AFP that "the pagers that exploded concern a shipment recently imported by Hezbollah of 1,000 devices" which appear to have been "sabotaged at source".

There was no immediate comment from Israel on the explosions.

burs-jza/rox

S.O.Rowlens--MC-UK