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HK bookseller disappearances
Hong KongPolitics

Detained Causeway Bay bookseller Gui Minhai not seen by Swedish diplomats for more than three months, says consul general

Gui, one of the Causeway Bay booksellers, has been held on the mainland for eight months without formal charge

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Helena Storm started her tenure in Hong Kong in September. Photo: Edmond So
Stuart Lau

China has denied Sweden access to Gui Minhai, a Swedish national and bookseller detained on the mainland for more than three months, the country’s top diplomat in Hong Kong has told the Post.

The unresolved case cast a shadow over the Swedish consulate’s 60th anniversary in the city yesterday.

Gui disappeared from his home in Pattaya, Thailand, before resurfacing on the mainland and making confessions on state TV. He has been held for eight months without formal charge, accused of ordering his associates to smuggle about 4,000 banned books from Hong Kong into the mainland since October 2014.
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Gui was one of five booksellers operating in the city whose disappearances sparked widespread speculation that they had been abducted by mainland agents acting illegally.

Gui Minhai was paraded on state TV. Photo: SCMP Pictures
Gui Minhai was paraded on state TV. Photo: SCMP Pictures
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“We are of course very worried to see a Swedish citizen … displayed on national TV to confess a crime,” Helena Storm, Sweden’s consul-general to Hong Kong and Macau, said. “The case has been widely reported in Sweden.”

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