Court accepts appeal of convicted teen rapist

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Court accepts appeal of convicted teen rapist

By Li Qian (Shanghai Daily) 08:17, October 12, 2013

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A Beijing court has accepted an appeal by the teenage son of well-known Chinese military singers, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for rape.

The Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court, which accepted the appeal yesterday, may hear it within a month.

Li, 17, and four others were found guilty of taking a woman surnamed Yang they met in a Beijing bar in February to a hotel room where they beat her and sexually assaulted her, the Haidian District People’s Court ruled on September 26.

Li denied the charges during the trial, and the only adult in the case surnamed Wang, who was jailed for 12 years, also pledged not guilty. Both decided to appeal.

Yang’s lawyer Tian Canjun said he didn’t think Li’s family could show any favorable evidence during the appeal, Legal Evening News said.

But Li’s main lawyer at the trial Chen Chu wouldn’t represent the teen for the appeal.

‘‘I have fulfilled the contract and hoped his family didn’t include me as lawyer in the appeal trial,’’ he wrote on Weibo.com this week. He felt ‘‘blood in the head, injuries in the body and heartache’’ after working on the trial for four months.

The other three defendants, who admitted to the crime, received three to four years. They had apologized to the victim and agreed to offer compensation, and haven’t asked for a lighter punishment.

Li Shuangjiang, 74, the teen’s father, is dean of the music department at the Chinese army’s Academy of Arts. His mother, Meng Ge, is also a renowned military singer.

（Editor：HuangJin、Gao Yinan）