Hong Kong activists dismiss ‘confession’

Disappearances have fuelled growing unease over the erosion of freedoms

Rights campaigners dismissed an apparent confession by a missing Hong Kong bookseller paraded on Chinese state television as “worthless” and a “smokescreen” yesterday as the city’s leader distanced himself from the case.

Gui Minhai, a Swedish national, is one of five missing booksellers from a Hong Kong-based publisher known for salacious titles critical of the Chinese government.

Their disappearance has sparked alarm in the southern Chinese city which is guaranteed a range of freedoms not seen on the mainland.

In his confession on state broadcaster CCTV on Sunday Gui said he had returned to China to “take legal responsibilities” for killing a college student in a car accident 11 years ago.

Weeping Gui said he had fled the mainland after he was convicted of the crime, despite only receiving a twoyear suspended sentence.

Amnesty International’s East Asia director Nicholas Bequelin said Gui’s confession raised more questions than answers.

“From the legal standpoint the video is worthless,” he said. “Where is he? Under what authority is he detained? What are the circumstances under which he gave this interview? We cannot exclude the possibility that he made the statement under duress,” he said.

The disappearances have fuelled growing unease in Hong Kong over the erosion of freedoms in the semiautonomous city, which was handed back to China from Britain in 1997.

But despite deep public concern, Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying refused to discuss Gui’s case.

“The Gui Minhai case has not been reported to the Hong Kong police or the Hong Kong government,” he told reporters at a financial forum in Hong Kong.

Swedish deputy minister for finance Per Bolund — also speaking at the financial forum — said Stockholm “is quite concerned about the development” and asked for more “openness” from the mainland authorities, according to the South China Morning Post.

From the legal standpoint the video is worthless. Where is he? Under what authority is he detained? What are the circumstances under which he gave this interview?”

Nicholas Bequelin Amnesty official

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