HK businessman claims he was forced out of venture in Bahrain

Bahrain's honorary consul in Hong Kong will investigate a Hong Kong-based businessman's claim that authorities in the Gulf state forced him to abandon a sports marketing firm to his local partners.

Robert Maes, chief executive of High Five, a sports marketing company based in Queen's Road West, said he had lost HK$4 million in the venture and had contacted Hong Kong police about the matter, but accepted there was not much they could do.

With his Hong Kong-born wife, Mandy Chu Man-wai, Mr Maes set up Sports Marketing Asia, which is linked to High Five and is helping Bahrain's bid to host the 2010 World Road Cycling Championships.

Mr Maes, a Belgian national who says he moved to Hong Kong 30 years ago, said their business partners physically and verbally abused them at their home on March 8, an allegation that one of his partners denies.

Ms Chu, High Five's general manager, said her husband had left for a lunch meeting when two of their business partners arrived at their villa, which they used as an office.

'They grabbed me by the shirt, pushed me away and went into my husband's office,' she said. 'They were screaming at me in Arabic. Then four or five police came into the house looking for my husband.'

Mr Maes said that when he arrived home he agreed to go with them to the police station. There he was breathalysed and forced to sign statements written in Arabic. He refused to sign but relented when he feared he would not be allowed to leave.