Several lawmakers have urged Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying to fly to Beijing to express concerns over the case of the Hong Kong booksellers.
Lam Wing-kee of Causeway Bay Books recently returned to Hong Kong and exposed details of his detention on the mainland, saying that he was kidnapped from Shenzhen and detained in Ningbo last October by a Chinese special unit. He said he was forced to make a televised confession and was sent to Shaoguan to work at a library. Lam’s locations were not known publicly until his revelations.
In response to the fallout, Leung said he will write to the central authorities to express the government’s concern over the case, the government will review the notification mechanism between Hong Kong and the mainland, and it may dispatch government officials to follow up on the matter.
Democratic Party lawmaker Albert Ho Chun-yan has urged Leung to fly to Beijing instead to personally raise the concerns.
Ho, who helped Lam to host a press conference last week, said the notification mechanism should be triggered when a Hong Kong person was under criminal investigation.
“Mainland authorities should have notified Hong Kong authorities as soon as possible,” he said. “In the eight months since Lam went missing, you know none of these [details] were being passed on.”
Make the letter ‘public’
He said the mechanism was not being respected by mainland.
“This is what the Chief Executive should raise to Beijing,” he added.
Lawmaker and Democratic Party chairwoman Emily Lau Wai-hing and Liberal Party chairman Felix Chung Kwok-pan also made the same request to Leung, stating that he should fly to Beijing.
Chung said if Leung was to send a letter, the letter should be made public. He also said he hoped Leung would clarify which official would be sent to follow up on the matter, and what will be the circumstances that officials will be sent.
