Did Beijing tell Thai authorities to bar activist? Message ‘lost in translation’, Hong Kong’s justice minister says
Occupy leader Joshua Wong dismisses remarks by Rimsky Yuen as top Thai police official denies there was any pressure to turn away the young radical
Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung’s remarks, which Wong dismissed as irrelevant, came as Thai police were quoted as saying that Beijing had not requested that the 19-year-old be sent back to Hong Kong after he was detained at Suvarnabhumi airport on Wednesday and held in solitary confinement for more than 10 hours.
Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha had been quoted as saying that “officials there [in China] have requested to take him back. It’s Chinese officials’ business”.
After a visit to Bangkok promoting legal business on Friday, Yuen cited a Thai junta spokesman’s public statement that Thai authorities were not subject to instructions from other countries when sending Wong home.
“I think what the Thai prime minister said was it was a matter for China,” Yuen said. “From what I’ve seen, there seems to be different translations. I have not been in a position to clarify the differences in translation.”