URUMQI, May 22 (Xinhuanet) -- Chinese police said Sunday they had investigated two employees of a Xinjiang-based companies involved in loan fraud but denied overseas media reports of assault.

   Some overseas media reported that Ayixianmu Keyimu and Rozi Memet, both employees of the Akeda Industrial and Commerce Co.,Ltd. owned by Rabiya Kadeer, were assaulted and harassed by police during a fraud investigation. A spokesman with the Public Security Department of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region said the reportsare "groundless."

    After an investigation beginning April 22 this year, police found much evidence that the two were involved in economic fraud, he said.

    According to the spokesman, on Nov. 19, 2002, Ayixianmu Keyimu, a 34-year-old Uygur woman, obtained a one-year loan of 200,000 yuan 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 found the estate had already been transferred to others before it was mortgaged.

    On April 11, 2003, Ayixianmu Keyimu conspired with Rozi Memet,a 28-year-old Uygur man, to obtain a 10-million-yuan loan by offering forged certificates to the bank.

    The evidence collected led police to believe that the two had cheated banks for loans. The police put them under house confinement on May 11, 2005, for further investigation, said the spokesman.

    The spokesman said that the police's actions were justifiable because Ayixianmu Keyimu and Rozi Memet were suspects in an economic crime. The police performed their duty and acted according to law, he said.

    No country under rule of law could remain indifferent to crime shappening in its judicial domain, the spokesman said, adding, "It is utterly unjustifiable that some people overseas had no regard for the fact in reporting the case."  Enditem