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Hong Kong singer makes video appeal over bogus internet photos

Society Materials 5 February 2008 08:51 (UTC +04:00)

( dpa ) - Singer/actor Edison Chen has made a public appeal to the Hong Kong public not to download bogus internet pictures which appear to show him semi-naked with other female celebrities.

In the video released by his lawyers Monday night, Chen ask people not to download or forward the images and to destroy them if they had them.

The pictures, which are said to have been digitally doctored, appear to show the 27-year-old star with Gillian Chung of the Cantopop girl duo Twins, actress Cecila Cheung and former actress Bobo Chan - all of whom have been rumoured to have been romantically linked in the past with Chen.

Six men and two women have been arrested in connection with the photographs.

A 29-year-old has been charged with the publication of indecent material while a 23-year-old was expected to appear in court Monday charged with dishonestly using someone else's computer.

In his statement, Canadian-born Chen, who appeared in the films Infernal Affairs and Grudge 2, also apologizes to other victims of what he terms is a "strange, strange ordeal."

"The lives of many innocent people have been affected by this malicious and criminal conduct," he said. "And in this regard, I'm filled with pain, hurt and frustration."

Chen's statement came as the police investigation into the crime uncovered more than 1,300 pictures involving six women, two of whom have not been identified.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Vincent Wong Fook-chuen said the source of the pictures had been traced and it was believed the pictures were obtained illegally when someone took a computer to be repaired.

But he would not confirm reports they had been taken from Chen's computer.

The arrests sparked fears among the Hong Kong internet community about what kind of internet use was considered a crime.

Wong assured them that people who had only forwarded the obscene picture to friends had not violated the law. However it was a crime to put them in the public domain, for example on internet web pages, he said.

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