TAIPEI (Reuters) -A Taiwanese court sentenced the Chinese captain of a ship to three years in jail on Thursday after finding him guilty of intentionally damaging undersea cables off the island in February, in a case that alarmed Taiwan officials.
Prosecutors said the man was captain of the Chinese-crewed Hong Tai 58, registered in Togo, which Taiwanese authorities detained after suspecting the ship had dropped anchor near an undersea cable off southwestern Taiwan, damaging it.
The court in the southern Taiwanese city of Tainan said the ship’s Chinese captain, whom they identified only by his family name, Wang, was guilty of damaging the cables, though added he had denied the crime and that he can appeal.
Wang admitted that he told the crew to drop anchor, but denied that he was guilty of damaging the cables, and that he was merely negligent in his duties, the court said in a statement.
The court found that the captain had allowed the cargo ship to “wander”, and that the cables broke due to the pulling of the anchor, it added.
Taiwan’s Chunghwa Telecom suffered losses of more than T$17 million ($576,564) in repair costs, the court said.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment and Reuters was not able to locate a contact for a representative of Wang.
China has previously accused Taiwan of “manipulating” possible Chinese involvement in the case, saying it was casting aspersions before the facts were clear.
Seven other crew members of the ship have already been deported after prosecutors decided there was insufficient evidence against them.
Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, has reported five cases of sea cable malfunctions this year, compared with three each in 2024 and 2023, according to its digital ministry.
($1 = 29.4850 Taiwan dollars)
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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