Hong Kong 47 case | TVB airs post-release interview with Andrew Chiu, who says someone was manipulating events from the extradition bill controversy to the primary election
47人案｜無綫播趙家賢出獄後專訪 稱由修例風波至初選「背後有人操控」
In the democratic primary election case involving 47 people, Andrew Chiu Ka-yin, who pleaded guilty and became a prosecution witness, was found by the court to be a “principal offender” and sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment after a sentence reduction. It was reported earlier that he had received a remission of his prison sentence, making him the first defendant in the case to be released early. TVB aired an interview with Chiu after his release on Monday. He appeared noticeably thinner, with the voice-over saying that he had “lost 60 pounds”. Recalling 2019, Chiu said in the interview: “From the extradition bill controversy to the riots and then to the primary election case, it was actually all part of the same playbook. There were people with ulterior motives manipulating it behind the scenes.” He also said: “At the time, Uncle Deng [referring to Deng Xiaoping] put it very figuratively: the development of democracy has to proceed step by step; trying to achieve it too quickly will prevent its achievement. That was exactly what happened in 2019.” Chiu also said he wanted to sincerely apologise to the country, Hong Kong and the general public for having “challenged the HKSAR Government and the country’s constitutional order” in the primary election case.
民主派初選 47 人案中，選擇認罪、成為控方證人的趙家賢，被法庭裁斷為「首要分子」，經減刑後判監 7 年，早前有報道指他獲獄中減刑，成為案中首名提早獲釋的被告。《無綫》周一播出趙家賢出獄後的專訪，畫面所見趙明顯清減，旁白指他「瘦咗 60 磅」。 趙在訪問中回憶 2019 年，稱「修例風波去到暴亂，去到初選案，其實整體係一個套路，背後係有啲別有用心嘅人士 ，喺後面操控住佢」，又稱「當時鄧伯伯（指鄧小平），係好形象化咁樣講，民主嘅發展係要一步一步走，欲速則不達，2019 年正正就係咁樣」。 趙又稱，要為自己在初選案中「衝擊咗特區政府，以及係國家嘅憲制秩序」，向國家、香港及市民大眾誠摯道歉。