Tainan District Court on Thursday sentenced the Chinese captain of a Togolese-registered freighter that snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan and Penghu in February to three years in prison for intentionally damaging the cable.
The captain of Hong Tai 58, a Togolese-registered ship flying under a flag of convenience, surnamed Wang (王), was handed the sentence for undersea cable sabotage in contravention of the Telecommunications Management Act, the court said in a statement Thursday.
The court decision is subject to appeal.
The freighter was boarded and its Chinese crew detained by Taiwanese authorities on Feb. 25 after Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration (CGA) received a report from Chunghwa Telecom that its Taiwan-Penghu No. 3 submarine fiber optic cable had been severed, according to court documents.
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The submarine cable, used for both telephone and broadband communication, is located in a government-designated no-anchor zone where vessels are prohibited from anchoring, according to the court.
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