Budapest (AFP) – Taiwanese company Gold Apollo said Wednesday that the pagers used by Hezbollah members that simultaneously exploded and killed at least nine people were made by a Hungarian partner. About 2,800 people were wounded, including the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, when the pagers exploded across the country in blasts that Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah blamed on Israel.
The New York Times, citing anonymous American “and other” officials, reported that the pagers had been ordered from Gold Apollo, with explosives packed inside sometime before they arrived in Lebanon. They were tampered with by Israel before arriving in Lebanon, some of the officials told the US newspaper. Gold Apollo head Hsu Ching-kuang denied the report, saying the pagers were “100 percent not” made in Taiwan, and not from his company.
“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 statement that it has established a “long-term partnership” with Budapest-based BAC Consulting KFT to use its trademark and the model mentioned in media reports “is produced and sold by BAC”.
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. BAC Consulting CEO Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment. She 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, 530,000 euros) and profit of around 45,000 euros.
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 added. 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. 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 that killed nine people, including the 10-year-old daughter of a Hezbollah member, and wounded around 2,800 others.
© 2024 AFP
