Beijing police probing alleged illegal detentions

BEIJING police are investigating claims that two residential apartments were used to illegally detain people suspected of lodging complaints to officials in the capital.

A woman surnamed Zhou from Jiangsu Province said she was suddenly pushed and crammed into a minibus by four unidentified men, who refused to tell her the reason, after she left a government building in Beijing on July 4, The Beijing News reported yesterday.

Zhou said she and two other women in the vehicle were deprived of mobile phones and handbags before they were driven to a residential building in Changping District and locked up. Zhou said she saw at least 50 people, including a white-haired elderly woman, who were held captive in the poorly furnished apartment.

"It was basically 'black jail,'" Zhou said, adding that they were given inadequate food and hardly slept at night as there was no bed or pillow.

The woman reportedly said she and other detainees were beaten by the guards if they didn't behave well.

After a four-day detention, Zhou was released due to her "good behavior."

Beijing police said they had freed all people from the apartment and started questioning the guards. But they refused to reveal further details.

Police are also probing reports by three people from southern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region who said they were intercepted and illegally detained and beaten in a rented residential apartment when they arrived in Beijing to lodge complaints in January.

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