Six to be charged for kidnapping debtor

Hongkou district prosecutors plan to charge six suspects involved in a loan sharking operation for kidnapping three people who could not repay their usurious loans, the district prosecutor's office said Thursday.

One of the victims, 49, had been forced to work as a janitor at the company run by the six-member gang when the police found him after two other victims escaped and reported the gang to police, said Niu Ling, press officer for the Hongkou District People's Prosecutor's Office.

The victim had been held for two months. Apart from the cleaning work, he was also forced to call his friends and relatives for money so he could repay the loan. At night, the gang kept him under guard at a hotel, according to the press release.

He borrowed 30,000 yuan ($4,900) from the company on April 9, the prosecutor's office said. He agreed to repay the loan within a month at a 1.8 percent daily interest rate.

The man did not get suspicious when the amount written on the receipt of the loan turned out to be 50,000 yuan, it said.

After a month, when the man was unable to repay the company, two members of the gang took him away on May 27. Members of the gang beat him at the company's office until he passed out. He stayed there working until police came and rescued him.

The six gang members will be charged with illegal detention. Those who used violence and coercion as ways to get the loans back will probably get a more severe punishment, the press release said.