King of swing says it don't mean a thing
By Wang Xiang |
April 8, 2010, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
AS 22 people stood trial yesterday for allegedly engaging in group sex, the professor accused of being the organizer of their swinging parties not only pleaded not guilty but also derided the charges.
"I am definitely not guilty and the so-called crime of 'group licentiousness' is ridiculous," said Ma Yaohai, an associate professor of computer science at Nanjing University of Technology.
Ma and the 21 others were charged with engaging in 18 swingers' parties between 2007 and 2009, most of which were held in his apartment.
Under China's criminal law, assembled pruriency involves organizing and participating in group sexual activities at the same time and place.
If convicted, the 22 will become the first people found guilty of criminal licentiousness in two decades and face up to five years in prison.
The closed trial is being held before the Qinghuai District People's Court in Nanjing in east China and is expected to last three days.
Times missing
Ma's lawyer, Yao Yong'an, said yesterday that the charge was irrelevant because Ma's private and consent-based conduct did not harm anyone, the Nanjing-based Modern Express reported yesterday.
Police inquiries were perfunctory, Yao said, as 16 offences in the indictment offered no exact times.
Prosecutor Xiao Shuijin said the charge was enforceable if more than two people were having sex at the same place and at the same time.
A victim was not needed to convict somebody of licentiousness, Xiao said.
Ma, 53, identified online as "horny fire," started an online swingers' chat room on a popular instant messaging outlet in 2007 after he left his second marriage with "deep emotional scars and a distorted personality," according to Yangtze Evening News.
Yao suggested Ma's family had a history of mental illness, including his mother, brother, sister and a nephew.
Ma claimed he wrote a long letter to Nanjing police to explain how despair and curiosity lured him into the sex games, but officers said "they had no time for that rubbish."
The case sparked nationwide debate.
Rights issue?
One prominent sexual-rights advocate, Li Yinhe, said out-of-date customs were to blame and the crime should be banished as it denied people's constitutional rights to their own bodies.
However, most Internet commentators said they could not accept the idea of wife swapping.
Ma left the chat room in 2009 because he could not control the 190-plus members, most of whom only signed in for one-night-stands.
He continued to host swingers' parties in his apartment because "it was more convenient as my mother who lives with me has very bad hearing and Alzheimer's disease."
Police arrested him last December and he has since been allowed to live at home so he can look after his mother.
Ma was fired by the university and alienated by family and friends. He said his game plan was to get through the trial and become a brand ambassador for sex-toy makers.
"I am definitely not guilty and the so-called crime of 'group licentiousness' is ridiculous," said Ma Yaohai, an associate professor of computer science at Nanjing University of Technology.
Ma and the 21 others were charged with engaging in 18 swingers' parties between 2007 and 2009, most of which were held in his apartment.
Under China's criminal law, assembled pruriency involves organizing and participating in group sexual activities at the same time and place.
If convicted, the 22 will become the first people found guilty of criminal licentiousness in two decades and face up to five years in prison.
The closed trial is being held before the Qinghuai District People's Court in Nanjing in east China and is expected to last three days.
Times missing
Ma's lawyer, Yao Yong'an, said yesterday that the charge was irrelevant because Ma's private and consent-based conduct did not harm anyone, the Nanjing-based Modern Express reported yesterday.
Police inquiries were perfunctory, Yao said, as 16 offences in the indictment offered no exact times.
Prosecutor Xiao Shuijin said the charge was enforceable if more than two people were having sex at the same place and at the same time.
A victim was not needed to convict somebody of licentiousness, Xiao said.
Ma, 53, identified online as "horny fire," started an online swingers' chat room on a popular instant messaging outlet in 2007 after he left his second marriage with "deep emotional scars and a distorted personality," according to Yangtze Evening News.
Yao suggested Ma's family had a history of mental illness, including his mother, brother, sister and a nephew.
Ma claimed he wrote a long letter to Nanjing police to explain how despair and curiosity lured him into the sex games, but officers said "they had no time for that rubbish."
The case sparked nationwide debate.
Rights issue?
One prominent sexual-rights advocate, Li Yinhe, said out-of-date customs were to blame and the crime should be banished as it denied people's constitutional rights to their own bodies.
However, most Internet commentators said they could not accept the idea of wife swapping.
Ma left the chat room in 2009 because he could not control the 190-plus members, most of whom only signed in for one-night-stands.
He continued to host swingers' parties in his apartment because "it was more convenient as my mother who lives with me has very bad hearing and Alzheimer's disease."
Police arrested him last December and he has since been allowed to live at home so he can look after his mother.
Ma was fired by the university and alienated by family and friends. He said his game plan was to get through the trial and become a brand ambassador for sex-toy makers.
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