China will prosecute 45 Taiwanese citizens deported from Kenya on Wednesday in connection with a telecommunication scam.

The Taiwan citizens, who were operating out of Nairobi, were detained in Kenya. Beijing's decision to prosecute the Taiwanese nationals has intensified a diplomatic scuffle with Taipei.

Like Us on Facebook

Taiwan has described China's arrest of its citizens as extrajudicial kidnapping. Legislators from Taiwan have accused Kenya of violating international law by collaborating with China on the case. The Taiwanese suspects had reportedly been acquitted by a Kenyan court so critics say there was no justification on the part of Nairobi to handover them to China.

However, experts say that it is not illegal to extradite an accused person under international law and China has the right to indict anybody suspected of committing frauds/crimes, which has direct bearing on the territory of China.

There has been a war of words between China and Taiwan on the issue. China's Ministry of Public Security issued a statement on Thursday which said that 45 Taiwanese and 32 Chinese nationals (including 10 now in China) had deceitfully claimed to be law enforcement officers in a bid to extort cash from common people and businessmen in the mainland through telephone calls.

Meanwhile, an official in Taiwan's Justice Ministry has clarified that China wants to send the Taiwanese citizens among the suspects to Taiwan. However, officials in Beijing reportedly want Taipei to act tough on this issue because the suspects were operating in a foreign land and scamming Chinese nationals.

According to the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement, which was implemented since 2009, both countries have to formalize criminal-justice cooperation and establish a procedure for each side to return the other's citizens in legal cases. As part of this agreement, 14 Taiwanese accused in another fraud case, who were extradited from Philippines to China, were sent back to Taiwan under the agreement.

Tagschina, Taiwan, Kenya, telecommunication scam