Asylee Says Chinese Bank Had Him Tortured

MANHATTAN (CN) - A political asylee claims the China Construction Bank had him framed, imprisoned and tortured to prevent him from exposing a vice president's fraud. Liu Bo Shan, who was granted asylum in 1997, sued the New York City branch of China Construction Bank under the Torture Victims Protection Act and the Alien Tort Statute.

In his federal complaint, Shan the State Department has documented the "open hostility and lack of an independent judiciary" when he tried to redress the abuse in China.

Shan, of Flushing, says he was a manager and loan department clerk for the company's Hongling office from 1988 to August 1993.

In September 1993, Shan says he was assigned to audit a loan discrepancy with Shenzhen Construction Bank and noticed that China Construction Bank Vice President Guoxiong Liu had issued false bank deposit certificates.

Shan claims that after he submitted an audit report to a director, Liu claimed that Shan had had sex with a prostitute at work. Liu forced three coworkers to corroborate the accusation, but one of them told police he had lied, because he had been told if he did not he would be arrested and have his travel documents torn up, according to the complaint.

Shan says the bank called the police knowing that it "was substantially certain he would be tortured."

In custody, Shan says, he was suspended by his shackled wrists, beaten, slapped and his genitals were burned and mutilated with lit cigarettes.

The complaint continues: "He was then thrown into a small cell and five buckets of water were thrown on him. The water remained in the cell to a depth of several inches, affording him no place to sit or lie thereby causing his feet to swell from prolonged standing. After two days under these conditions, he was forced to sign a confession stating that he had consorted with a prostitute."

He was formally charged on Nov. 15, 1993, and sentenced to 15 days in prison and fined, Shan says. He says he paid the fine and served 11 days.

Liu later admitted he made the false certificate deposits, but the bank refused to investigate and adhered to the false charge against him, Shan says.

His lead counsel is Meryl Sanders Viener with Sanders Viener Grossman of Mineola, N.Y.

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