Police dogs were used to terrify a former legislator in central China's Henan Province into falsely confessing to running a mafia-type gang, it is claimed.

Yang Jinde, 43, says officers put handcuffs and leg irons on him and locked him in a cage with the animals in an ordeal they dubbed "ghost washes face."

The former car dealership boss also claims officers beat him, forced chili-laced water down his throat and sexually assaulted him with a beer bottle, the New Express newspaper reported yesterday.

In July, Yang was convicted of organizing a criminal gang and other offences by a court in Tanghe County and jailed for 20 years. Another 22 of his employees were also jailed.

Yang, who is now paralyzed from injuries he claims were inflicted by police, is appealing against the sentence, claiming he was tortured during interrogation. Also appealing are 14 employees.

Yang was the chairman of the Aoben car dealership in Tanghe County and a legislator for Nanyang City.

The case stemmed from a dispute over a building Yang was renting for his company in 2003 which was bought by a man, surnamed Cui, before the lease expired.

After Yang refused to move out when the lease expired, Cui took legal action against him, and in 2010 a court ordered that 353,320 yuan (US$ 55,658) be paid from Aoben's bank account. A local bank removed 86,000 yuan on September 27, 2010.

When Yang's request for the cash to be returned was refused, he and employees stormed the court, attacking officials and staff.

They then went to Beijing to lodge complaints to higher authorities but were persuaded not to by a district official.

Back in Nanyang, they were detained, the report said, and taken to a police dog center.

Yang claims he was restrained in the cage with only his head emerging, which was licked by police dogs. He said he was so terrified he lost control of his bodily functions. His employees were treated in a similar way at the center.

Police rejected all these allegations at the July court hearing, claiming they never extort a confession. Prosecutors showed a police report to support this, but refused to produce audio and video records of the interrogations.