Chinese General's son appeals against gangrape conviction

A Beijing court will hear the appeal of the teenage son of a top General of the Chinese military who was sentenced to ten years in jail in a gangrape case.
17-year-old Li Tianyi, son of Gen Li Shuangjiang, and his associate, surnamed Wang, submitted an appeal to the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court against the last month's judgement of the Beijing Haidian District People's Court against their sentence.
The court today accepted their appeal, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Li and four other men were detained on February 21 following a complaint from a woman stating that she was gangraped by them in a bar on February 17.

According to the court, in the first trial, Li and four other defendants took the woman to a hotel room by force, beat her up and gangraped her.
The court held two pretrial meetings on July 22 and August 20, in which lawyers for the five suspects and the victim disagreed on whether it was a gangrape or prostitution case.

Li was sentenced to ten years in prison, while Wang was sentenced to 12 years in jail for rape.
Three other defendants were given prison terms ranging from 3 to 4 years.
The case drew public criticism, especially about the behaviour of some China's influential officials.