Death-row convicts deny charges in rape case retrial
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E-mail Shanghai Daily, February 23, 2012
Seven defendants charged with gang raping an 11-year-old girl and forcing her into prostitution in 2006 retracted their confessions yesterday in a second trial by an appeals court in central Hunan Province.
Zhou Junhui who was sentenced to death for kidnapping and raping the girl, identified as Le Le, argued he was dating with her rather than abducting her, local media reported today.
Qin Xing, the owner of a nightclub in Yongzhou City where the girl was gang raped and forced to work as a prostitute, claimed that she prevented an inmate from committing suicide while she was held in detention and thus deserves to have her death sentence commuted.
But the inmate named Zhou Lanlan denied she had attempted suicide and supported the girl's mother Tang Juan who appealed for death penalty to all the seven defendants.
Other five defendants also denied charges against them and asked for leniency in the Higher People's Court of Hunan Province, the Sanxiang Express reported.
In the second trial, Tang also asked for 1.84 million yuan (US$292,400) in compensation. Last year the Yongzhou City Intermediate People's Court fined the defendants only 200,000 yuan.
Prosecutors said Zhou Junhui lured Le Le to a video shop where he raped her in October 2006 and forced her to work as a prostitute in Qin's nightclub, threatening to kill her whole family if she disobeys.
She sold sex more than 100 times in three months and Zhou earned more than 7,000 yuan from her. In December that year, a relative of Tang posed as a customer and rescued Le Le, the prosecutors said.
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