Estonia awaiting US papers for Taiwanese businessman's extradition

Photo: Elmo Riig

The Estonian authorities are awaiting U.S. extradition papers on the Taiwanese businessman Hsien Tai Tsai detained here last week on suspicion of strategic goods smuggling.

Tsai was detained on May 1 on the basis of a U.S. provisional arrest request and remanded in custody for 30 days under a court warrant on May 2, the Public Prosecutor's Office said. The prosecutor's office is waiting for the United States to file the extradition papers. "This being a U.S. criminal case, information is provided by the U.S. embassy. The investigation is conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation," spokespeople for the prosecutor's office said.

U.S. authorities said on Monday that the Taiwanese businessman detained in Estonia is together with his son suspected of trying to bypass a U.S. ban on the export of machinery that could have been used for weapons production in North Korea. The 67-year-old Hsien Tai Tsai was arrested on Wednesday in the Estonian capital Tallinn and his son Yueh Hseun Tsai, 36, was arrested the same day at his home in Glenview, Illinois.

The machinery includes ones that drill precise holes in metal.

Prosecutors said the U.S. authorities banned the father already in 2009 from doing any business in the United States as suspicions around him grew. But the complaint says he continued trying to export machines from the United States with his son's help.

He was also indicted by Taiwanese prosecutors in 2008 for forging shipping invoices and illegally shipping restricted materials to North Korea.

The two men each face up to 20 years in prison and up to 1.75 million U.S. dollars in fines if convicted.