Hong Kong's security chief said on Wednesday that there is no legal way a Hong Kong bookseller who returned to the city after being detained on the mainland could be sent back to China.
Secretary for Security Lai Tung-kwok's comments came after a one-day trip to Beijing to meet with officials, after five Hong Kong booksellers who went missing last year later surfaced in mainland Chinese custody.
One of the booksellers, Lam Wing-kee, returned to Hong Kong last month and held a news conference detailing his months of captivity and repeated interrogations by mainland agents.