Three missing Hong Kong booksellers could be back home ‘soon’ after mainland detention
Due to their ‘good attitude’ , Lam Wing-kee, Lui Por and Cheung Ji-ping might be granted bail pending trial amid revelations unlicensed publications were mailed to the mainland
The missing five booksellers from Causeway Bay Books mailed unlicensed publications into the mainland, a Chinese media outlet reported on Sunday night.
The report, the first from mainland media to link the disappearance of the five booksellers to their business in books “not yet approved”, also hinted that three of the booksellers currently detained by mainland authorities could go home soon.
Shanghai-based online portal Thepaper.cn, citing police information, reported that one of the five missing booksellers, Gui Minhai, co-owner of publishing house Mighty Current, had ordered his associates – Mighty Current general manager Lui Por, Causeway Bay Books manager Lam Wing-kee, and Lui’s assistant Cheung Ji-ping – to mail 4,000 such books to 380 buyers across 28 mainland cities and provinces since October 2014.
Causeway Bay Books is owned by the publishing house.
Watch: Hong Kong’s missing booksellers - a timeline of events
The report said Gui, a mainland-born Swedish national, set up Mighty Current publishing company in 2012, acquiring Causeway Bay Books in 2014. Gui hired Lam as the bookstore manager.