Former Alibaba employee detained in China over sexual assault allegations
- Police in the eastern city of Jinan say two men have been taken into custody on criminal charges
- Announcement comes a week after woman employed at the company alleges assault took place during a business trip last month
Police in the eastern Chinese city of Jinan have detained a former employee of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba on criminal charges over allegations that he sexually assaulted a female colleague while working at the company.
In a statement on Saturday evening, Jinan police said the man and a company client were detained on suspicion of “forcible indecency”, but there was no evidence for rape.
The announcement came a week after the woman alleged publicly that she was assaulted by her direct supervisor during a business trip in Jinan on July 27.
Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
The police said the supervisor, identified only as Wang, entered the woman’s hotel room four times on the night of July 27, allegedly assaulting her in the room.
The police also alleged that the client, identified only as Zhang, assaulted the woman twice that night – once at a restaurant and once at the hotel.
The case was still under investigation, the police said.