Full transcript of Lam Wing-kee’s opening statement at his Hong Kong press conference

A tired but defiant bookseller Lam Wing-kee gave a press conference in Hong Kong on Thursday accompanied by Democratic Party lawmaker Albert Ho Chun-yan. He returned to the city on Tuesday after being detained in Ningbo then Shaoguan in mainland China before he was finally allowed to return to Hong Kong. This is the transcript of the 22-minute opening statement he gave in the Legislative Council complex.

Last year on October 24, I was crossing the Shenzhen immigration point to visit my girlfriend in Dongguan when I was detained by Shenzhen officers.

When they detained me, I asked them what I had done wrong. I pressed them for an answer for the whole day, but no one was able to tell me [what I had done wrong].

I remember that when I was passing immigration, the document scan machine stopped and I was trapped there. Two immigration officers pointed at me. Then a few other officers ... took me to a corner on the left. Maybe they recognised me.

Then a group of people – I remember there were about 11 people – brought me to a seven-seater van.

They then took me to a police station where they confiscated my papers.

At the time I pressed them about what I had done wrong. Still no one answered me. So all I could do was sit in the detention area within that police station until night time. Someone came over to ask me for my name, but my ID card and papers were all confiscated.