'Beijing saw Gui Minhai as a real troublemaker'

Kidnapped Hong Kong bookseller Gui Minhai has been jailed once again on the mainland, this time for a decade. File photo: AFP

Political commentator Johnny Lau says the charge against bookseller Gui Minhai was no doubt trumped-up. File photo: RTHK

Political commentator Johnny Lau says the heavy sentence slapped on Causeway Bay bookseller Gui Minhai suggests the central government believes he was the "mastermind" behind titles critical of state leaders.



Gui has been sentenced by a court in Ningbo to 10 years in prison for "illegally providing intelligence overseas".



Lau said Gui, one of five men from the store who disappeared in 2015 and later turned up in detention on the mainland, is perceived by Beijing to be a troublemaker.



He said the suspected kidnapping of the five men had attracted global attention and Gui had no doubt faced a trumped-up charge.



Meanwhile, another of the booksellers, Lam Wing-kee, said he was shocked to hear that Gui has been jailed for so long, after already having served a stretch behind bars since his ordeal began.



Lam told RTHK that he didn't understand how Gui would have had the chance to leak any "intelligence" when he had been monitored so closely by the mainland authorities, and essentially had no freedom.



"It’s unbelievable that the mainland could randomly frame him for an offence, and the sentence is quite heavy … We were only selling books, what secrets are there?" he said.



Lam, who says he was illegally detained by mainland agents in 2015, moved to Taiwan last year at the height of the extradition bill saga. He said he feared Hong Kong would hand him over to the same authorities he had earlier given the slip.