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Son of military singers to serve 10 years for rape
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The teenage son of two famous Chinese military singers was sentenced to 10 years in prison yesterday after being convicted of rape in a case closely watched by the public for signs of leniency because of his family ties.
Li Tianyi, 17, and four other accused had taken an 18-year-old woman they met in a Beijing bar in February to a hotel room, where they beat her and sexually assaulted her, the Haidian district court in northwest Beijing said in its verdict.
Li denied the charges at his trial last month, saying he was drunk at the time, but the court identified him as the ringleader.
Only one of the defendants was an adult. He pleaded not guilty but was sentenced to 12 years.
Li, who also pleaded not guilty and was tried as a minor, was sentenced to 10 years in what the court said was a punishment that took into account his age. The other three — all of whom pleaded guilty — were sentenced to three to four years.
Sentences for rape normally range from three to 10 years, but in cases deemed severe — including gang rapes and those causing serious injury or death — punishment for adults can range from life in prison to the death sentence.
Li’s lawyers had said before the trial that the family would appeal a guilty verdict.
As dean of the music department for the Chinese army’s Academy of Arts, Li’s father, Li Shuangjiang, 74, enjoys the same status as a lieutenant-general, according to the People’s Liberation Army Daily. His mother, Meng Ge, is also a renowned singer in the PLA.
Liu Shanying, a politics researcher from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said public scrutiny of the case likely played a role in ensuring Li was not acquitted or given a light sentence.
“There has been too much public sentiment involved in this case, namely the hatred of the rich and powerful. That hatred has shaped and dominated the public sentiment,” Liu said. “And the ruling has been directly or indirectly influenced by that.”
By yesterday evening, Li’s case was the hottest topic on Sina Weibo, with more than 10 million people posting and reposting opinions or news about him.
“To be honest, the conviction is fair enough because of the public attention,” said one user of the microblog service.
Others decried what they saw as too light a sentence.
At a news conference, the court said it understood the “grave responsibility” that came with the case and had rigorously adhered to China’s penal law in handling the case.
“We believed the focus of the public attention was whether the case would be tried strictly by law, and whether the verdict would be just,” Fan Jun, a court official overseeing cases involving minors, said, according to official transcripts posted online.
The case also generated discussion of how Chinese courts would deal with violence in cases where the victim’s reputation was questioned. The court said yesterday that allegations that the victim might be a prostitute were irrelevant.
“The key is whether the female has consented to sex,” Fan said.
Li Tianyi said he was drunk and had passed out during the incident, that he never beat or had sex with the woman and that he could remember little of the night in question.
But the Haidian court noted it was Li who grabbed the victim’s arm and dragged her into the hotel and that he was seen on surveillance video hitting her on the head and face in an elevator.
It said Li demanded the woman undress and when she refused, he slapped her, kicked her and stripped her with another defendant. Li was the first to force himself on the victim, it said.
In 2011, Li drove a BMW into a couple’s car in Beijing, beat them up and scoffed at bystanders about calling the police. He was sent to a juvenile correctional center and his father made a public apology.
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