- Title: Hong Kong democracy activist 'stapled' by Chinese agents
- Date: 11th August 2017
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) FORMER PRO-DEMOCRACY LEGISLATOR, LEE CHEUK-YAN, SAYING: "You know, I think the purpose is either to warn off the people of Hong Kong or to create problems between (Chinese President) Xi Jinping and Hong Kong. So we do not really know what are the real objectives of the whole beating up. Because both (reasons) may be the case." VARIOUS OF QUEEN MARY HOSPITAL
- Embargoed: 25th August 2017 11:28
- Keywords: pro democracy activist torture stapled China Chinese agents
- Location: HONG KONG, CHINA
- City: HONG KONG, CHINA
- Country: China
- Topics: Crime/Law/Justice
- Reuters ID: LVA0046TPP9AD
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: A prominent member of Hong Kong's Democratic Party said on Friday (August 11) he was beaten and "stapled" by mainland agents in the Chinese-controlled city before being dumped on a beach in what activists said was the latest warning to the democracy movement.
Howard Lam, a key pro-democracy activist in the former British colony, said he was even told in a telephone call not to give a photo signed by Barcelona footballer Lionel Messi to Liu Xia, the widow of Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.
Lam was confronted by men speaking Mandarin, spoken in Beijing but not widely in Cantonese-speaking Hong Kong, outside a sports store.
He said the men took him away, interrogating him and stapling his skin 21 times for being "unpatriotic" in a nine-hour ordeal. He was knocked out and eventually found himself dumped on a beach in Hong Kong's remote Sai Kung district.
Activists say those freedoms have come under threat with perceived meddling by Communist Party rulers in Beijing. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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