Gold Apollo claims it was not responsible for manufacturing the pagers which were apparently modified by Israeli agents and used to bomb thousands of Hezbollah terrorists.
By World Israel News Staff
A Taiwanese electronics company denied Wednesday that it was involved in the manufacturing of pagers used by Hezbollah terrorists and detonated in a mass attack on Tuesday, injuring thousands of operatives in the Iranian-backed group.
Media reports after Tuesday’s attack implicated Israel’s Mossad, amid claims its agents implanted miniature explosive devices inside a shipment of thousands of pagers bound for Lebanon’s Hezbollah five months ago.
According to an analysis by Reuters of images of pagers destroyed in Tuesday’s attack, the devices were manufactured by Taiwan’s Gold Apollo.
However, on Wednesday, Gold Apollo founder and president Hsu Ching-Kuang told reporters outside of the company’s headquarters in New Taipei that his company was not involved in manufacturing the devices.
“The product was not ours. It was only that it had our brand on it,” Hsu said.
“We may not be a large company, but we are a responsible one,” the Gold Apollo president said, expressing surprise that the pagers could be rigged with explosives and detonated. “This is very embarrassing.”
In a statement issued by Gold Apollo, the company claimed that the AR-924 model pager was manufactured by Budapest-based company BAC Consulting, and that Gold Apollo had licensed its brand to BAC Consulting.
Gold Apollo had granted permission to “BAC to use our brand trademark for product sales in specific regions, but the design and manufacturing of the products are entirely handled by BAC,” the company said.
Reuters reported Wednesday that it was unable to contact BAC after Tuesday’s bombing.
Hsu said BAC’s payments to Gold Apollo for use of its license were “very strange,” saying the payments originated in the Middle East.