Taipei City, Sep 18
A Taiwanese company on Wednesday denied manufacturing the pagers involved in detonations across Lebanon, which resulted in the deaths of at least nine people and left nearly 3,000 others, including Hezbollah fighters and medics injured, local media reported.
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co. said that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon were not made by it, but by a Hungarian company which has a license to use its brand.
"The product was not ours. It was only that it had our brand on it," Gold Apollo founder and President Hsu Ching-Kuang was quoted as saying by the Taipei Times as he addressed the media at the company's offices in New Taipei City on Wednesday.
Citing images of the destroyed pagers, which included stickers and designs quite similar to those produced by Gold Apollo, some reports had asserted that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from the Taiwan-based company.
However, Gold Apollo issued a statement refuting these claims, clarifying that the pagers in question were manufactured by Hungarian company BAC under a brand trademark agreement.
Gold Apollo emphasised that it only authorised the use of its brand but was not involved in the design or production of the AR-924 pager model linked to the blasts.
"Gold Apollo Co., Ltd. has established a long-term partnership with BAC Consulting KFT. According to the cooperation agreement, we authorise BAC to use our brand trademark for product sales in designated regions, but the design and manufacturing of the products are solely the responsibility of BAC," the statement read.