Legislator James To said Lee Bo's letter only added more questions to the case. Photo: RTHK
James To talks to Janice Wong
Two prominent pan-democratic lawmakers – James To and Lee Cheuk-yan – on Tuesday cast doubts on a letter apparently written by the missing Causeway Bay bookseller, Lee Bo, and called on the police to investigate the matter.
To, a Democratic Party member as well as a member of the Legislative Council's Panel on Security, said the letter, allegedly written by Lee Bo, is not enough to confirm his safety and that the Hong Kong police needs to investigate until this can be confirmed by authorities in the territory.
Lee Bo is a shareholder of the book store which publishes titles critical of the mainland leaders, leading to speculation that mainland public security agents may be involved in his disappearance from Hong Kong. Four others linked to the bookstore had disappeared in October – one in Thailand and the other three on the mainland.
In the letter faxed to a friend on Monday, Lee Bo said he returned to the mainland "using his own method" and was working with concerned parties in an investigation that may take a while.
However, To said while the letter may be comforting to Lee Bo's wife, it has raised even more questions about the case.
For one, he said, it may have exposed a loophole in Hong Kong's immigration controls. And, if his departure from the city was arranged by, or related to mainland authorities, To said this would be "clearly a breach of the One Country, Two Systems principle".
Lee Cheuk-yan, from the Labour Party, also called for swift action by the Hong Kong government.
He said a logical deduction is that the bookseller had been abducted and was forced to report that he is safety. And, until Lee Bo’s whereabouts is confirmed, Lee Cheuk-yan said the issue of personal security of people in Hong Kong remains unresolved.
Meanwhile, lawmaker Michael Tien, who is a local deputy to the National People’s Congress, said even if Lee Bo was requested to go to the mainland and went there through "alternative means with no one accompanying him", then he cannot say for sure that this can be regarded as cross-border law-enforcement.
But Tien said he will make inquiries with the Shenzhen police and other mainland government departments.
http://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1233658-20160105.htm
