Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China also plans march on Sunday to demand explanation from Beijing
TONY CHEUNG AND NAOMI NG
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 07 January, 2016, 3:33pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 07 January, 2016, 3:33pm
Albert Ho Chun-yan, former chairman of the Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, says Lee Bo is likely to be a victim of ‘political kidnap’. Photo: David Wong
Pressure is mounting on Beijing to come clean on the mysterious disappearance of five Hong Kong booksellers as a Hong Kong activist group vowed to lodge a complaint with the United Nations on the case.
Albert Ho Chun-yan, former chairman of the Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, said the group is planning to report the case to the UN’s Committee on Enforced Disappearances.
Lee Bo, who co-owns publishing firm Mighty Current and the Causeway Bay Books store, vanished last Friday. The shop sells books covering political gossip and scandals, many of which are banned on the mainland. Four of Lee’s colleagues went missing separately in October.
Ho said: “From the circumstantial evidence … It is very likely that Li fell victim to a ‘political kidnap’, and was forced to leave Hong Kong by illegal means” because there is no official record of his departure.
The alliance’s former chairman Lee Cheuk-yan believes what happened to Li can be regarded as a case of “enforced disappearance” under a United Nations convention, and the alliance will ask the UN committee to urge Beijing for an answer.
“If the committee follows up … it will report to the UN’s General Assembly on its observations,” Lee added.
The alliance will also organise a march on Sunday, from the Hong Kong government’s headquarters in Admiralty to Beijing’s liaison office in Western District.
Marchers will call for Beijing to explain the whereabouts of the five, and to release them if they were detained, Ho said.
As with Lee’s case, the whereabouts of Lui Bo, the general manager of the Causeway Bay bookstore, remain a mystery.
One of Lui’s neighbours didn’t seem to find it odd that he hasn’t spotted Lui recently.
“I haven’t seen him and his wife for a few months now,” said Lui’s neighbour, Chan, who only wanted to be identified by his last name.
“It’s not unusual you know, he was just renting the place and people move all the time.”
Local media reported that Lui had disappeared in October and was allegedly taken away by mainland authorities from an apartment in Shenzhen.
Lee told the media in an earlier interview that Lui had last used the store’s computer in mid-October.
Other neighbours said Lui’s apartment has been vacant for a while.
“The police came last month and were looking for him too,” an elderly man whose brother lived in the same five-storey building told the Post.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-crime/article/1898573/hong-kong-activists-vow-lodge-complaint-un-over-missing
