Samut Prakan — The Samut Prakan Provincial Court has granted bail to a Hong Kong photojournalist after he was arrested for the illegal possession of a bulletproof vest.
Anthony Kwan Hok-chun, 29, a photojournalist from the Hong Kong online media company Initium Media was detained on Sunday while waiting to board a flight to Hong Kong at Suvarnabhumi airport.
Mr Kwan was in Bangkok to cover the Erawan shrine bombing which killed two Hong Kong residents. The court has barred him from leaving the country.
He was apprehended under the 1987 Arms Control Act after an X-ray machine at the departure terminal detected a helmet and bulletproof vest in his carry-on luggage with the word "Press" on it. Both items are considered as weapons under the act.
If found guilty, Mr Kwan could face up to five years in prison and a fine of up to 50,000 baht.
He also faces an additional two years in prison or a fine of up to 5,000 baht under the Air Navigation Act. Mr Kwan complained he was hungry as he walked from the temporary cell located on the ground floor of Samut Prakan Court Monday afternoon.
"I have been advised not to give any interviews at the moment," he said.
According to police, the journalist, accompanied by his lawyer and a representative from the Chinese embassy, said his company gave him the vest to use during his time reporting in Thailand.
Mr Kwan added he didn't know it was illegal to take it out of the country.
"We're a new online media organisation that was launched on Aug 3 after setting up a 60-member newsroom in May.
"The Bangkok bomb killed and injured several Hong Kong and Chinese people, so we sent two journalists to cover the incident," Jieping Zhang, editor of Initium Media, told the Bangkok Post.
"We appreciate Anthony for joining our organisation as he's a talented photojournalist from Bloomberg. It's just an unfortunate situation," she said.