Life sentences for sex orgy organisers

A Chinese court has sentenced two people to life in prison for organising a three-day-long sex party for hundreds of Japanese tourists.

Twelve other people were sentenced to up to 15 years in prison, the government announced in Beijing.

The incident in September at an hotel in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai fell on a sensitive wartime anniversary and caused outrage in China.

The Chinese government complained officially to Tokyo.

Chinese authorities have issued arrest warrants for three Japanese accused of organising the sex party and asked Japan to help in detaining them, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Japan had not decided how to respond to the request, said a Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman in Tokyo.

According to earlier Chinese news reports, as many as 400 Japanese men and 500 Chinese hostesses had sex at the Zhuhai International Conference Centre Hotel over a three-day period that ended on September 18.

The day was the anniversary of a Japanese attack on a city in China’s northeast in 1931 that many Chinese regard as the start of Japan’s Second World War invasion and occupation.

The 14 defendants – all of them reportedly Chinese – were charged with prostitution, soliciting, conspiracy and other offences.

The court sentenced Ye Xiang, assistant to the hotel’s general manager, and Ming Zhu to life in prison, Xinhua said.

The hotel’s deputy sales manager, Liu Xuejing, was sentenced to 15 years.

Another defendant, Zhang Junying, was sentenced to 12 years, and the 10 others received between two and 10 years in prison, the report said.

The timing of the event in Zhuhai drew anger as word spread over the internet in China, where many feel that Japan has failed to atone for its wartime brutality.

Many of the Japanese involved were said to be employees of a Japanese construction company that sponsored their trip.

Japan’s Foreign Ministry has said the company acknowledged paying for “companions” at a reception but denies sponsoring the events that followed.

Japan has launched its own investigation into the incident. News reports have not identified the company involved.