Photo
HONG KONG — The police in Hong Kong said on Tuesday that a pro-democracy activist falsified his account last week of being abducted by men he said were mainland Chinese security officers who put staples in his legs.
The bizarre tale heightened concerns about the deterioration of the rule of law as mainland China’s authoritarian government tries to exert greater influence over the semiautonomous Chinese city of Hong Kong.
The activist, Howard Lam, a member of Hong Kong’s Democratic Party, gave his account to reporters last week and showed rows of staples in his upper thighs that his supporters said were meant as a warning to people who might cross the mainland authorities.
But serious doubts have since been raised about the case. On Tuesday morning, the police arrested Mr. Lam, 42, on suspicion of providing false evidence and misleading investigators.
Advertisement Continue reading the main story
The police gave no indication of what they believed Mr. Lam’s motivation was.
Mr. Lam said that in early July, he wrote to F.C. Barcelona, the Spanish soccer club, to ask for a signed photograph of the Argentine star Lionel Messi to give to Liu Xiaobo, the imprisoned Chinese Nobel laureate.
Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters.
Mr. Liu, who had late-stage liver cancer, died before Mr. Lam could give him the photo. He said that he received a call last week from a man speaking Mandarin, a language not much used among Hong Kong’s Cantonese speakers. The man warned him against giving the photo to Liu Xia, Mr. Liu’s widow, who remains under house arrest since her husband’s death.