China finally confirms it has detained Hong Kong bookseller Lee Bo after his Swedish associate is paraded on state television
Hong Kong police ask for meeting with Lee Bo after Guangdong security officials respond to their enquiries
Hong Kong police have written to Guangdong security officials asking for a meeting with Lee Bo after they were finally informed that the missing local bookseller was on the mainland.
Police said late on Monday night they had received a written reply to their enquiries about Lee, who disappeared from Hong Kong last month, prompting suspicion that he had been spirited away by mainland agents for selling books critical of China’s ruling Communist Party.
READ MORE: Timeline: Hong Kong’s missing booksellers and what has happened so far
Also enclosed in the correspondence from the Guangdong Provincial Public Security Department was a letter from Lee to the Hong Kong government, which police said was similar to the last one received by the bookseller’s wife.
READ MORE: ‘Dear Ping...’ Another letter from missing Hong Kong bookseller Lee Bo surfaces
In that letter, Lee had reiterated he was helping with investigations and blamed one of his missing associates, Gui Minhai – a mainland China-born, naturalised Swedish citizen who went missing three months ago – for getting him involved in the case.
A source told the Post there was no mention of three other booksellers whose whereabouts remain unknown.
The closest to an explanation came on Sunday night when Gui was paraded on state television and admitted his involvement in a fatal car accident on the mainland 12 years ago.