Police have arrested an unemployed man in connection with the internet displays of nude photographs, purportedly of Hong Kong pop and movie stars. The 29-year-old suspect was arrested at his home in the New Territories on Wednesday after officers seized a computer containing 12 of the images.
The images are not new and have already been widely published.
The man was tracked through the internet service provider who handed police his internet protocol address.
Investigators are still trying to determine the suspect's role in the case and say he may not have been the first to upload the pictures.
Initial findings show there is no direct relationship between the suspect and the artists, and that blackmail was not involved, Deputy Commissioner for Operations Peter Yam Tat-wing said yesterday.
He warned people who had received or downloaded the photos not to distribute them as they could breach the law by doing so.
Officers will now contact the artists and their agents as part of their investigation, Yam said.
Two artists have already approached the police.
There has been some difficulty in chasing down the original source as some of the pictures have been deleted from the internet, Yam said.
But he added the source would be located eventually through forensic examination.
The images were first circulated on the internet on January 27. They included one of a young man and woman, apparently captured from a video and said to be Twins member Gillian Chung Yan-tung and singer-actor Edison Chen Koon-hei, with another picture purported to be that of actress Cecilia Cheung Pak-chi.
The pictures appeared a day after doctored pictures with Chung's head on the half-naked body of another woman were posted. Yesterday, 67 pictures and two videos could still be found on the internet involving 10 artists.
Responding to media questions, Yam said they were still trying to determine whether the pictures were real or fakes. He said if the pictures were found in servers overseas, they would call on international enforcement agencies to get involved and contact the relevant service providers.
Commissioner of Police Tang King- shing said the police are very concerned about the case and understand the public concern it has raised.
"The police are trying to prevent the spread of the pictures, but we are having some difficulties as the pictures have been spread around for some time," he said. The pictures, which have not yet been classified as obscene, are to be forwarded to the Obscene Articles Tribunal for classification.
