Experts: Harsh penalties deter fraud

Telecom fraud suspectes are escorted off a plane by Chinese police from Kenya. [Photo/Xinhua]

Scammers could get life on the mainland, compared with up to 5 years in Taiwan

Considering the comparatively lighter punishments that convicted telecom swindlers face in Taiwan, repatriating Taiwan suspects to the mainland and trying them according to the mainland's laws will better help in fighting crime and protecting the legitimate rights and interests of people on both sides of the Straits, experts have said.

In Taiwan, people found guilty of conducting telecom fraud face a maximum prison sentence of five years, while the maximum on the mainland is life, said Fan Chongyi, a professor at the Procedural Law Research Institute at the China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing.

"Suspects who were sent back to Taiwan were given lenient sentences or even acquitted. Many of them later resumed swindling," Fan said.

The comments came after 97 suspects, implicated in more than 100 major telecom fraud cases across the mainland, were repatriated from Malaysia on Saturday, including 32 who were originally from Taiwan.

As all of the alleged victims were from the mainland, that means the mainland has territorial jurisdiction over the cases, regardless of where the alleged perpetrators were from, said Li Juqian, deputy head of the International Law School under the CUPL.

"It was in accordance with international law and mainland law that Malaysia deported the suspects to the mainland. The move is unchallengeable in terms of the law," Li said.

The 97 repatriated suspects are now being held at a detention center in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, said Zhang Jun, a senior investigator from the Ministry of Public Security.

The fact that the suspects were sent back to the mainland ensures that the police stand the best chance of obtaining evidence and investigating the case thoroughly, Zhang said.

Criminals could face harsher penalties on the mainland than they might in Taiwan and that is likely to deter others from carrying out similar crimes, Zhang added.

A Taiwan resident surnamed Hsu, who was one of the telecom fraud suspects deported from Kenya to the Chinese mainland earlier in April, said the main reason he was attracted to telecom fraud was that "money comes easy and punishment is light", Xinhua News Agency reported.

Hsu was sentenced to seven months in prison the first time he was caught by Taiwan authorities.

"If I had have known I could have been deported to the mainland this time, I would definitely have been too afraid to have done this," Hsu said.

Xinhua contributed to this story.