Revelations of how three men kidnapped a Hong Kong businessman and his wife across the border to mainland China and left them tied up to be ‘found’ and questioned by police
JOYCE.NG@SCMP.COM
PUBLISHED : Sunday, 10 January, 2016, 10:53am
UPDATED : Sunday, 10 January, 2016, 11:00am
Hong Kong police. Photo: SCMP
While the mystery over the disappearances of bookseller Lee Bo and his colleagues remain unresolved, Hong Kong police yesterday shed details on a 2013 kidnap case where mainland police were able to arrest a businessman who was first “unlawfully detained” by three Hong Kong men in the city before being brought across the border.
The police information came amid fears among Hongkongers that mainland authorities have ways to “bypass” Hong Kong laws in doing their job, as state-run tabloid Global Times claimed in an editorial last week.
The police gave details in the case of Pan Weixi last night after Ming Pao published a commentary by a veteran journalist who cited newly disclosed mainland archives that Hong Kong police once conducted an inquiry into Pan’s kidnapping.
Pan, a property developer who had acquired Hong Kong permanent residency, was convicted of economic crime offences and sentenced to jail for 17 years and nine months in September last year.
While mainland press reports have mentioned Pan was “kidnapped by mainland police in Hong Kong” before his arrest, this was never confirmed by the mainland authorities.
“If they can legally do so, given the different judicial systems in Hong Kong and mainland, mainlanders will be greatly encouraged to abduct Hongkongers to the mainland...”
The South China Morning Post asked Hong Kong police whether they did have an enquiry into the purported kidnapping and whether mainland police were behind it.
In response, the police said they started an inquiry in September 2013 after Pan’s daughter reported her parents missing. An initial enquiry revealed “suspicious vehicles and persons” had appeared near Pan’s residence before their disappearances.
Police said four days after the couple went missing, the daughter was told by her relatives on the mainland her parents were “found by [mainland] Public Security Bureau on a roadside and were brought back to the police station”. The couple were tied up when they were discovered, according to their lawyer Duan Wanjin.
Pan was subsequently detained by the Guangdong public security bureau for an enquiry into economic crime offences on the mainland, and his wife was brought back to the city by Hong Kong police.
In December 2013, Hong Kong police arrested three Hong Kong men for “unlawful detention”. They were temporarily released in the same month and next due to insufficient evidence to lay charges, police said, while investigation is now still going on.
Asked what was the relationship between the three men and the Guangdong public security, the police spokeswoman said she had nothing to add.
Pan’s lawyer last month urged the Guangzhou court to stay the proceedings and Pan’s release on the grounds of abuse of the law and violation of “one country, two systems”.
“Even if it was [not mainland police but] people outside the government that abducted [Pan] from Hong Kong to the mainland, this cannot be a legal basis for mainland police to arrest him,” Duan wrote in his submission, published on his blog.
“If they can legally do so, given the different judicial systems in Hong Kong and mainland, mainlanders will be greatly encouraged to abduct Hongkongers to the mainland.”
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/1899702/hong-kong-police-reveal-details-couple-detained-mainland
