Chinese-(*13*) ex-pop star Kris Wu has been jailed for 13 years after being discovered responsible of rape, a Chinese court docket stated Friday.
Wu initially shot to fame as a member of the Okay-pop boyband EXO, earlier than leaving in 2014 to launch a profitable solo profession as a singer, actor, mannequin and selection present choose.
Nineteen-year-old scholar Du Meizhu final yr accused Wu of date-raping her when she was 17, leading to a barrage of public criticism and luxurious manufacturers dropping offers with him.
Wu was sentenced to “11 years and 6 months of imprisonment for rape”, the court docket in Beijing’s Chaoyang district stated Friday, including he “was additionally sentenced to imprisonment of 1 yr and ten months for the crime of gathering individuals to commit adultery”.
“It was discovered that the defendant Wu Yifan (Kris Wu) had compelled sexual relations with three girls at his residence from November to December 2020 once they have been drunk and didn’t know or not ready to withstand,” the court docket stated.
Wu will serve a 13-year time period earlier than being deported, it added.
He was additionally fined 600 million yuan (US$84 million) for tax evasion, state information company Xinhua reported, citing Beijing’s tax authorities.
Wu “used a pretend enterprise to transform the character of his earnings and falsely declare it, and evaded 95 million yuan of tax by concealing private earnings via a number of home and abroad affiliated corporations”, Xinhua reported.
He additionally “underpaid 84 million yuan of taxes”, the information company added.
Wu was beforehand one among China’s most bankable stars, however manufacturers together with Louis Vuitton, Bulgari, L’Oreal Men and Porsche suspended their partnerships with him over the case.
And extra victims spoke out on-line within the wake of the preliminary claims, accusing Wu’s workers of predatory behaviour together with inviting them to boozy karaoke events.
The hashtags “women assist women”, “women serving to women” and “women assist women time” — the place girls expressed solidarity with Du — have been censored from Chinese social media within the wake of the scandal.
The Weibo trending hashtag “the legislation is the bottom customary of morals” additionally racked up 830 million views, as customers complained in regards to the excessive authorized threshold required for victims to show sexual assault in court docket.
– #MeToo fallout –
The saga round Wu evoked China’s embattled #MeToo motion, which noticed a wave of girls come ahead in 2018 voicing experiences of sexual harassment — generally involving highly effective public figures.
Beijing moved decisively to suppress the feminist motion, arresting dozens of scholar activists in a present of its zero-tolerance method to these deemed potential threats to its management.
A landmark case introduced by screenwriter Zhou Xiaoxuan in opposition to high-profile TV presenter Zhu Jun was dismissed final yr, with a Beijing court docket additionally throwing out an enchantment this August.
And whereas tennis star Peng Shuai’s allegations of sexual assault in opposition to a senior Communist Party politician sparked a global outcry final yr, her claims have been swiftly censored inside China.
Peng later denied making the accusation.
– Celebrity crackdown –
Wu’s case was on the centre of a sweeping authorities crackdown on superstar tradition that took maintain final summer season.
Around the identical time as his arrest, high actress Zheng Shuang was hit with a $46 million tax evasion tremendous whereas references to movie star Zhao Wei have been wiped from video streaming websites.
Authorities stated they have been focusing on unhealthy values and “irregular aesthetics”, ordering broadcasters to chop actuality expertise reveals and cease giving airtime to “sissy” males and “vulgar influencers”.
Critics have argued that the strikes additionally aimed to reinforce the Communist Party’s ideological management and curb exterior influences that might pose a menace to its rule. – AFP
