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A Hong Kong political activist has claimed he was abducted in the city on Thursday and then blindfolded, beaten and tortured, with staples punched into his legs, before being released on a beach by people he said were mainland agents.

Howard Lam Tsz-kin, a member of the Democratic Party, the largest opposition party in Hong Kongs legislature, said he believed the reason for the kidnapping was that he had received a signed postcard from Barcelona football star Lionel Messi last month which he intended to pass on to Liu Xia, the widow of late Chinese dissident and Nobel peace laureate Liu Xiaobo.

Lam said he had received a phone call from a mainland friend on Monday, warning him not to try to give Liu the postcard.

He told me in Putonghua ... that Id pay if I ignored the warning, Lam said.

The activist said that on Thursday, after he had bought a football jersey in Yau Ma Tei at about 4pm, two strangers spoke to him in Putonghua and pushed him into a van.

I was punched in the vehicle ... and I later woke up when someone hit me with a hard object, he said.

At that time, I was only wearing my underwear, I was blindfolded and my limbs were tied up.

He said he believed there were four to five people in the room when he was tortured. They at no point showed him any documents or identified themselves.

A man asked if I knew Liu Xia, and why I was doing all these things ... He said I didnt know how to love the country, Lam said.

The man also said: Are you a Christian? Do you know how to love the country and the religion? ... Ill give you some crosses, he said, and then he stapled my legs.

Lam showed the media about 20 marks from staples on his legs on Friday.

I passed out again, and when I woke up I found myself dumped on a beach and it was about 1am ... I later discovered I was in Sai Kung.

Asked if he would seek police protection after the incident, Lam said he did not trust the Hong Kong police and authorities on the matter. He said he had been too tired to report it to police after returning home early on Friday morning. After receiving advice from the Democratic Partys former chairmen Martin Lee Chu-ming and Albert Ho Chun-yan, Lam decided he would host a press conference on Friday and go to hospital before making a police report.

Democratic Party lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting said the incident was a serious violation of Hong Kongs mini-constitution, the Basic Law, and the one country, two systems principle, which guarantees the city a high degree of autonomy under Chinese Communist Party rule.

He said colleagues would take the activist to Queen Mary Hospital in Pok Fu Lam before reporting the incident to the local police on Friday.

A source with the Hong Kong police said officers would interview the victim and check security camera footage to gather evidence on the case.

Detectives from the Kowloon West regional crime unit would investigate, the source said.

Liu Xia, a 56-year-old poet, painter and photographer, was married to Chinas most famous pro-democracy dissident Liu Xiaobo, who died in police custody on July 13. She had been under house arrest since 2010 but her whereabouts are currently unknown.

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Hong Kong pro-democracy activist claims he was abducted, blindfolded and beaten by mainland China agents - South China Morning Post