'Victim' in attack story turns out to be newspaper's owner

<i>Fortune News</i> alleged racist police brutality. Photo / Martin Sykes

A Chinese newspaper has accused Auckland police officers of committing a brutal, racially motivated attack on an innocent man - without telling readers that the alleged victim was the owner of the paper and was arrested for assault in the alleged road rage incident.

The front page story headlined "Where is justice in New Zealand?" was printed in the weekly Chinese Fortune News paper and made allegations of brutality against four officers.

The story says the man was beaten by police until his hands bled, electrocuted, dragged from his car, then kicked from behind - because he honked his horn at a car blocking a driveway in downtown Fort St.

Photos taken by witnesses show the man being arrested by the driver side of his late-model Jeep, further illustrated with a cartoon splatter of blood.

The subject of the article also alleged one of the police officers said: "We specialise in bullying you rich Chinese people".

The story went on to criticise police and question whether New Zealand was a racist country.

But what was not reported was that the anonymous victim was businessman Tsyan Shen - the sole director of Fu Bao Newspaper Ltd, which publishes the Fortune News.

The story also failed to mention that Tsyan, 38, was charged with assault as a result of the Fort St incident and will appear in the Auckland District Court on August 26.

It is understood Tsyan is alleged to have struck the driver of the car blocking his path.

CBD police commander Inspector Andrew Coster said he could not comment on the charge as the matter was before the court.

But he was confident the court proceedings would "see the full facts of the incident brought to light".

Mr Coster said the Auckland police force was proud of the relationships built with Asian ethnicities in the city, in particular the Chinese community.

"The article published by Tsyan in his newspaper is neither an accurate reflection of the facts nor does it fairly represent the approach taken by police in contact with members of the public, irrespective of their ethnicity."

The Weekend Herald visited the Queen St offices of the newspaper and was told Tsyan was in China and unavailable for comment.

He did not return phone calls.

His lawyer, David Jones, QC, said Tsyan remained anonymous so the article did not prejudice other legal proceedings.