The police allegedly asked a suspect, who was reporting to the Wanchai police station under bail conditions, to sign a statement saying that he will not pursue a case involving stolen bail money.

Bail money totalling HK$1.07 million was allegedly stolen from the Wanchai police station by a police officer who was on duty on May 2. He allegedly fled to Macau and has yet to be found.

Mr. Liu, who was suspected to be involved in a commercial crime, had placed a HK$20,000 bail with the police. He said that he was asked to pay an additional HK$100 as well as sign three documents on Wednesday night. Liu said that he thought it was for the processing of additional bail money and thus did not read the documents. However, he said he later discovered that he had signed an additional statement saying that he would not pursue the bail money deposited with the police.

Additional statement paper in Chinese. Photo: Apple Daily.

“The options had already been chosen. They only asked me to sign my name,” Liu told Apple Daily. He said that the police did not tell him that he could pick options when he signed the documents. The option to pursue the lost money was already crossed out, he claimed.

Mr. Chiu, a staff member at a law firm who accompanied Liu to the police station – but was not with him when he reported to the police – said that the incident was “too scary.”

“If they don’t sign [the statement paper], they may fear that they will be detained for 48 hours. Anyone would be scared.”

Wan Chai police station. Photo: Apple Daily.

The police told HKFP that they would not comment on the specific case but said that, after they have received and organised statements from those affected, they will hand the case over to the Department of Justice. In turn, the Department of Justice told local media that they were not aware of the case.

Democratic Party lawmaker James To Kun-sun told Ming Pao that the matter was “very serious” and that the police had exerted “inappropriate pressure” and were “stupid and abusive of power.”