Police said on Sunday that they are investigating two employees of a Xinjiang-based company accused of involvement in loan fraud, but denied overseas media reports of assault.
A spokesperson from the Public Security Department of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region said the reports were "groundless."
Some overseas media had reported that Ayixianmu Keyimu and Rozi Memet, both employees of Akeda Industrial and Commerce Co. Ltd. owned by Rabiya Kadeer, had been assaulted and harassed by police during a fraud investigation.
The spokesperson said that, after an investigation beginning April 22 this year, police had found evidence that the two were involved in economic fraud.
According to him, on November 19, 2002, Keyimu, a 34-year-old Uygur woman, obtained a one-year loan of 200,000 yuan (US$24,165) from a local bank by mortgaging part of the estate on the third floor of the Rabiya Commercial Building.
The loan has not been repaid, and the police said the estate had already been transferred to others before it was mortgaged.
On April 11, 2003, the spokesperson said Keyimu conspired with Memet, a 28-year-old Uygur man, to obtain a 10-million-yuan (US$1.21 million) loan by offering forged certificates to the bank.
The evidence collected led police to believe that the two had cheated banks for loans, and they put them under house arrest on May 11 this year for further investigation, he said.
The spokesperson said the police's actions were justifiable because Keyimu and Memet were suspects in an economic crime, and that they performed their duty and acted according to the law.
No country under rule of law could remain indifferent to crimes happening in its judicial domain, he said, adding that "some people overseas had no regard for the facts in reporting the case."
(Xinhua News Agency May 23, 2005)
