Nude photo suspect freed in HK

2008-02-15 20:13

Hong Kong - A jobless Hong Kong man, detained for weeks and denied bail in the city's nude celebrity photo scandal was released on Friday following a public outcry that he was unfairly victimised by police.

Chung Yik-tin, 29, was arrested and detained in late January after police raided his home and accused him of publishing an obscene photograph, one of hundreds, of top city celebrity Edison Chen nude in bed with a string of prominent starlets.

But a Hong Kong court on Friday decided to drop the obscene publication charge against Chung and release him, following the reclassification of the photograph by the Obscene Articles Tribunal as "indecent" - a lesser offence.

Chung's detention without bail, over the Lunar New Year break, provoked protests from internet activists who said he was unfairly singled out by police and was a victim of excessive police enforcement.

But the police denied any wrongdoing.

Sufficient evidence

"I am very clear that we had sufficient evidence and in a legal sense, our actions were correct," assistant police commissioner Vincent Wong Fook-chuen told reporters afterwards.

"We followed regular procedures so I don't think we did anything wrong, it was just that there were different views on whether the photograph was indecent or obscene," Wong added.

Chung, dodged a media scrum outside the courthouse and left without making a comment.

To date, a territory-wide police investigation has led to nine arrests including Chung and several staff of a computer shop where over 1 300 obscene images were stolen from Edison Chen's laptop computer while it was being serviced, police said.

Tabloid newspapers in star-obsessed Hong Kong have devoted blanket coverage to the scandal, which has seemingly snared at least six stars including actress Cecilia Chung, singer Gillian Chung, Hollywood actress Maggie Q and Taiwan's Jolin Tsai.

Web censorship

Besides igniting debate about sexual morality, with schoolchildren among those spreading the images - the police crackdown has sparked fears of web censorship and a curtailing of internet privacy rights.

"The police were a bit panicked two weeks ago, and they felt the pressure or the concern of the public," said James To, a legislator and deputy chairperson of the legislative council's Security panel.

"They wanted to silence the whole internet community, so therefore they just picked out one person (Chung) to be the scapegoat to prosecute ... to deter other people from further distributing the articles," To added.

Chen, the Canadian-born rap singer and actor, will give a press conference on Sunday in Hong Kong, the Apple Daily newspaper reported.

- Reuters