Letter writer accused of threatening Abe gets bail

A 24-year-old man arrested on suspicion of sending two threatening letters to Japan's chief cabinet secretary was granted bail by police yesterday.

Charges have not been laid.

Police and the Japanese consulate in Hong Kong also confirmed that the man was a suspect in sending a third threatening letter to the Japanese consul in the city. Two letters threatening death were sent to different offices of Shinzo Abe in Japan and a similar one was received this week by Consul-General Takanori Kitamura.

All three were signed Lau Yiu-tak and contained a box cutter-like knife.

Police would not say if the suspect has the same name.

Deputy Consul-General Mikio Numata said he believed the three letters were sent by the same person because the name and the address given for the sender was the same in all three.

Mr Numata would not discuss the details of the letters but it is believed that the letters sent to Mr Abe carried warnings against politicians visiting the Yasukuni Shrine honouring Japan's war dead.

A police source said the man was arrested on Wednesday after officers from the Organised Crime and Triad Bureau tracked clues found in the letters. The source would not say where.

Police have said the man is a college graduate.

Hong Kong police are continuing to investigate, a police source said, adding the investigation will take time because some evidence is not in Hong Kong.

Police are exchanging information with their counterparts in Japan via the international police network Interpol.

The Tokyo shrine is controversial for visiting Japanese leaders, since it also honours 14 class A war criminals who were executed.

Visits to the shrine made by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi anger Japan's neighbours, especially Koreans and Chinese.