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Chinese doctor told bookseller Gui Minhai to seek medical care abroad, daughter says

Angela Gui says her father has symptoms of form of motor neuron disease and he wants to go to Stockholm, where specialists are standing by, for treatment

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Angela Gui with her father Gui Minhai in a Twitter post from 2016 captioned, “The last photo taken of Dad and I in Pattaya, December 2014”. Photo: Angela Gui

Detained bookseller Gui Minhai had been advised by a Chinese doctor to seek medical treatment overseas before he was arrested at a train station near Beijing last weekend, his daughter revealed on Thursday.

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Angela Gui said her father told her he had symptoms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) – a form of motor neuron disease that attacks the brain and spinal cord – after he was released from custody in October.

Gui Minhai is one of five booksellers whose disappearance two years ago caused an international storm. All of them were associated with Causeway Bay Books, which released titles critical of Beijing.

Gui Minhai was arrested at a train station near Beijing on Saturday. Photo: Handout
Gui Minhai was arrested at a train station near Beijing on Saturday. Photo: Handout

“I spoke to him several times a week [since October] and got to see him too [on Skype] before he was snatched for the second time [on Saturday],” Gui told the South China Morning Post by phone from the UK.

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“He looked like and sounded like himself ... but he had developed some neurological symptoms that he did not have before he was taken in 2015,” she added.

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