Missing Hong Kong bookseller Gui Minhai ‘released’, but family cannot find him
Confusion surrounds claim that seller of banned books who disappeared in 2015 has been freed, after family says no one has heard from him
Confusion erupted over the fate of missing Hong Kong-based bookseller Gui Minhai following his “release” from custody in mainland China last week, two years after he disappeared while on holiday in Thailand.
Gui’s daughter, Angela, said he was not necessarily free, as he had neither been seen nor heard from since his release last Tuesday and might have “disappeared again”.
The foreign ministry in Beijing confirmed on Tuesday that Gui, co-founder of Mighty Current publishing house, which specialised in political gossip about the Chinese leadership, was released a day before the Communist Party party began its twice-a-decade congress.
“From our understanding, Gui Minhai has already completely served the sentence imposed for a traffic offence, and was released on October 17,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.
That traffic offence refers to Gui’s earlier confession on state television that he had surrendered to mainland Chinese authorities for a drink-driving death he caused in 2003.