Missing Hong Kong publisher Gui Minhai paraded on China TV
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A Hong Kong publisher reported missing last October has appeared on Chinese state TV telling he voluntarily passed himself over to the authorities.
Gui Minhai said he turned himself in after being on the run for twelve years over a drink-driving conviction.
Mr Gui, a Swedish national, is one of five Hong Kong booksellers to go missing recently.
Some in Hong Kong have alleged they are being detained by China because of a book critical of the mainland.
Thousands joined rallies in Hong Kong last week over the disappearances, telling it amounted to an erosion of freedoms.
The Chinese state news agency Xinhua said Mr Gui, 51, was involved in a fatal car accident in the eastern city of Ningbo, in which a female college student was killed. It said he fled while under a suspended two-year jail term.
"I am taking my legal responsibilities, and am willing to accept any penalty," he told CCTV, according to Xinhua.
Public confessions have long been a part of China’s criminal law, but experts say many confessions are compelled.
Critical bookshop
Mr Gui was the possessor of the Mighty Current publishing house in Hong Kong. He failed to comeback from a holiday in Thailand in October.
Activists believe he was unlawfully transported to China because of an unpublished book about the private life of the Chinese president.
The five who went missing either work for Mighty Current or a petite bookstore it possesses called Causeway Bay Books.
The bookshop is known for selling works critical of China which are banned in the mainland.
Mystery disappearances in Hong Kong book world
Gui Minhai: 51, disappeared while staying in Thailand in October 2015. The China-born Swedish national wields the Mighty Current publishing house
Lui Bo: last seen in mainland China, just north of Hong Kong, in October 2015. General manager of Mighty Current
Cheung Jiping: 32, last seen in mainland China in October 2015. Mighty Current’s business manager
Lam Wingkei: 60, last seen in Hong Kong in October 2015. Manager of Causeway Bay bookstore
Lee Bo: sixty five – also known as Paul Lee – disappeared in Hong Kong in late December 2015. A shareholder in Causeway bookshop and a UK passport holder. Wifey withdraws request for police to help find him in early two thousand sixteen telling he has been in contact from mainland China
During the recorded interview, Mr Gui also asked the Swedish authorities not to get involved.
"Even however I am a Swedish national, I truly feel that I am still Chinese and my roots are still in China. So I hope that the Swedish side would respect my individual choice, rights and privacy and let me solve my own problems," he said.
A spokeswoman for the Swedish foreign ministry said it was aware of reports but not commenting, and was seeking clarification from China.
Last Sunday, thousands of protesters marched to the offices of Beijing’s representative in Hong Kong, chanting "say no to political kidnapping".
The latest to vanish was Lee Bo, in late December – Mr Lee raised the alarm after four of his associates went missing in October.
Hong Kong authorities have said they are conducting a "thorough" investigation into the disappearance of the five boys.
Under the "one country, two systems" principle, Hong Kong is supposed to love high degrees of autonomy from China.
Albert Chan, a politician with the pro-democracy People Power Party, told the Big black cock last week he believed the case was "the very first time there has been such a clear disturbance of Hong Kong’s law".