Hong Kong booksellers to be ‘released soon’

Three Hong Kong booksellers being held in China will be released “within days”, according to news reports.

According to the BBC, police in Guangdong said in a letter to the Hong Kong police force that booksellers Lee Bo, Lam Wingkei and Cheung Jiping would be bailed pending investigations.

The men are part of a group of a group of booksellers who went missing from the Causeway Bay Bookshop and Mighty Current publishing house responsible for producing books that were reportedly critical of leading political figures in China.

The statement said Lee, Cheung and Lam "were suspected to be involved in a case relating to a person surnamed Gui".

Gui Minhai, a Swedish national, was one of the first men to go missing last October.

Hong Kong police said they were continuing to investigate missing person cases filed on the three men to be freed, and were seeking further information from Guangdong.

However, on Monday (1st March) Lee gave an interview to China’s Phoenix Television said he left Hong Kong to go to China voluntarily.

"I have always felt that I'm a Hong Kong citizen, a Chinese citizen, and because people have used my British nationality to sensationalize and make the situation more complicated, that's why I'm deciding to give up my British nationality," Lee said. "Why have I acted so mysteriously? It's because I've had to assist with a mainland Chinese investigation and it required testifying against some people."

Lee said he used an "illegal means to sneak there and didn't use [his] Chinese home return permit" as he was afraid of reprisals from those he was testifying against.