Zhuhai International Convention Centre in September.
[newsphoto.com.cn/file]
China Daily
2003-12-17
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Two Chinese defendants in the notorious mass prostitution scandal involving a group of Japanese tourists in the Zhuhai Special Economic Zone in September were sentenced to life in jail yesterday.
Ye Xiang, assistant to general manager of a local five-star hotel, and Ming Zhu, a pimp, were convicted of arranging prostitutes for more than 200 Japanese tourists between September 16 and 18 in the southern Chinese city which borders the Macao Special Administrative Region.
Everything Ye and Ming illegally earned was confiscated.
Zhuhai Intermediate People's Court, which opened a trial on the case on December 12, reached the verdict yesterday, but the public and non-essential court employees were barred from the courthouse due to privacy concerns.
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Zhuhai International Convention Centre in September. [newsphoto.com.cn/file] |
Another two major defendants, Liu Xuejing and Zhang Junying, both local night club madames, were also sentenced to 15 and 12 years in jail respectively and fined by the court.
Meanwhile Zhuhai Intermediate People's Procuratorate has decided to arrest three Japanese residents who were also involved in the infamous incident.
After detailed investigation, the three Japanese residents namely Hirobe Isao, Takahashi Shunji and Fukunaga Koji, were accused of organizing prostitution for over 200 Japanese tourists during their stay in Zhuhai from September 16 to 18, police sources said.
And Interpol China issued notices on November 26 for the three Japanese citizens who left China on September 18.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry has also asked Japan to help Chinese police arrest the Japanese trio.
Ten other Chinese defendants were also sentenced to between 2 and 10 years in jail.
They include hotel staff, night club bosses, pimps, prostitutes and the employees of a local Japanese-funded company.
The case has raised great concern at home and abroad.
No local government officials and civil servants were found to be involved, but 15 major officials, including bureau directors and their deputies, from Zhuhai municipal offices of public security and tourism have been handed down Party and executive disciplinary punishments for negligence.
And the two hotels involved in the case were immediately required to stop doing business when the case was exposed in September.
Several of the prostitutes came from many night clubs in Zhuhai and neighbouring Shenzhen.
The prostitutes were each paid between 800 yuan (US$96) and 1,800 yuan (US$216) a night to serve and entertain their Japanese clients in the hotel rooms.