REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, TAIPEI -- The mother of one of the Taiwanese nationals who was detained by Kenyan police and deported to China said Wednesday her son has done nothing wrong and questioned how China could treat him as a member of a criminal organization.

The woman, identified only as Mrs. Liu, said in an interview with a local radio station that her son was helping the investigation of a fire in a Nairobi building in 2014 in which an alleged fraud ring was operating and did not commit any crime.

She denounced remarks by Zhang Zhijun, head of the Taiwan Affairs Office under China's State Council, in which he said Taiwanese suspects connected to attempts to defraud Chinese from overseas locations must be brought to justice.

The mother challenged Zhang to provide evidence showing that her son was a member of the fraud ring.

When asked why she has not requested government assistance despite her son being detained in Kenya since late 2014, she only repeated her claim that her son had done nothing wrong and was simply cooperating with investigators.

Mrs Liu said her son was first sent to a police station and then to prison, but Kenyan authorities later added charges against him, drawing out the judicial process.

After he was acquitted by a Kenyan court, her son wanted to retrieve his passport but was detained by police, she said.

Asked if it was possible she was in the dark about her son's criminal activities, Mrs Liu vehemently denied the possibility.

She described her son as a normal person who works as a stage audio engineer and enjoys travel, having visited many places, including Egypt, Dubai, the United States and Southeast Asian countries.

The Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) under China's State Council, meanwhile, defended its actions to pressure Kenya into deporting Taiwanese citizens to China, saying many Taiwanese fraud suspects have not been punished and that Chinese people were extremely dissatisfied.

TAO spokesman An Fengshan said police on the two sides of the Taiwan Strait have worked closely together and achieved positive results since agreements on a joint crackdown on crime and mutual judicial assistance were signed, but "we've also seen some problems that should not be overlooked."

He also cited TAO head Zhang as saying a day earlier on a hotline set up between him and the head of Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, Hsia Li-yan, that the practice of Taiwanese setting up operating bases overseas to defraud Chinese has become even more serious.

Zhang said the operations have resulted in huge losses to Chinese people, and the Taiwanese should "be brought to justice" to "protect the public, especially the rights of the victims," according to An.

China's Ministry of Public Order said the fraud ring that was busted in Nairobi in 2014 was involved in defrauding people in nine cities and provinces in China, including Beijing, Jiangsu, Hunan and Sichuan, of billions of Chinese yuan.

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