Mainland police passed on the details of their handling of the case of bookseller Lam Wing-kee to a Hong Kong delegation on Tuesday while discussing a mutual notification system between police.
Lam Wing-kee, 61, was detained last year in the mainland for running an illegal book selling businesses. At a press conference in Hong Kong on June 16, Lam, on bail at the time and accompanied by local legislator Albert Ho Chun-yan, claimed that he was mistreated, banned from meeting relatives and refused a lawyer while under alleged house arrest.
He also accused mainland police of breaking the "one country, two systems" policy.
His remarks stirred debate across China and internationally.
Hong Kong and mainland agreed to meet and discuss improving the current notification mechanism.
APPREHENDED FOR SUSPECTED ILLEGAL BUSINESS OPERATIONS
In the first half of 2015, police in the eastern city of Ningbo found that books produced outside the Chinese mainland were illegally sold to the city.
Investigation led police to a woman surnamed Hu, purportedly Lam's girlfriend, in southern Guangdong Province, who was suspected of mailing a large number of books to Ningbo and other parts of the mainland. Some buyers told police that they had bought books from Hong Kong's Causeway Bay Books store managed by Lam and provided payment details. In September 2015, Ningbo police began a formal investigation into the involvement of Lam and others.
Between Oct. 17 and 24, 2015, suspects including Lam and Hu were detained in cities including Shenzhen and Dongguan and later placed under surveillance.
As early as in September 2012, Lam was penalized by customs authority in Shenzhen for bringing illegal publications to the mainland.
After that, Lam and his accomplices attempted to elude regulators with fake book covers and either mailed books directly to mainland buyers or used intermediaries like Hu. Buyers made payments totaling more than 400,000 yuan (60,000 U.S. dollars) into relevant mainland bank accounts.
According to Lam, most of the books were filled with "made-up stuff."
"The more horrifying the titles are, the more readers they draw, the better they sell. The content is mostly fabricated out of stories from the Internet or magazines. It takes about a month to put a book together," Lam told investigators.
After confessing, Lam said he was elderly, in poor health, and fully understood his mistakes.
"I hope to be given leniency," he said, promising never again to engage in illegal bookselling.
In March, Lam was released on bail. Upon his request, police helped him find a residence and a job in Guangdong. On June 2, Lam asked for permission to return to Hong Kong for personal reasons and, pledging to abide by all the rules of his bail, his request was approved.
