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China framed HK candidate: party

Hong Kong legislative candidate Alex Ho, seen in his campaign picture, was arrested on Friday in what his Democratic Party allies said yesterday was a Chinese frame-up. PHOTO: AP

Hong Kong democrats yesterday accused China of jailing one of their members on trumped-up prostitution charges in a bid to disgrace a political movement Beijing has been feuding with for more than seven years.

Alex Ho, 46, a Democratic Party candidate in the city's upcoming legislative elections, was arrested last weekend in southern Dongguan and jailed for six months, party official Fred Li said.

Garment salesman Ho was on a business trip when he was awoken in his hotel room by "public security" officers on Friday morn-ing, Li said.

They dragged Ho from his bed and beat him before planting women's underwear and condoms in his room. Officers then produced a woman they claimed was a prostitute, Li said.

The incident caused panic within the Democratic Party, which has been in a political tussle with China over the pace of democratic reforms since the city moved from British colonial to Chinese rule in 1997.

Li said Ho's detention was politically motivated.

"From the way that the mainland security police handled the case, there are a lot of suspicious points," said Li, a senior party official and fellow candidate.

"There are reasons why I suspect this is politically motivated; it is designed to demoralize the Democratic Party."

Ho's distraught wife was travelling to the southern Chinese city where her husband is being kept "in a hard-labor detention camp," Li said.

"She has absolute faith in her husband and believes he has been unfairly treated. This allegation is completely out of character. We are very disturbed and shocked by this, especially the speed with which he was jailed without trial," he said.

It is expected to make huge gains at the expense of parties sympathetic with the regime in Beijing.

Ho's incarceration would exclude him from contesting the Sept. 12 poll, however, denting the party's chances in a constituency considered crucial by the democrats.

Although a Dongguan public security bureau official said the case was being looked into, the Dongguan City Government said it was not aware of the incident.

Hong Kong's government said it had taken up the case, however, and would follow it "actively."

"We will talk to Mr Ho's wife before we contact the relevant security bureau -- they have not contacted us," said Hong Kong Secretary for Security Ambrose Lee (李少光).
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