Four men in Linxia, Northwest China's Gansu province, have been sentenced to imprisonment ranging from six years to 15 years for raping a 12-year-old girl in 2021.
The four were also deprived of their political rights and ordered to pay a total of 126,000 yuan ($18,300) in compensation for emotional support and other expenses, the court in Linxia announced on Monday.
The girl's case attracted public attention in May 2022 after a post was published on social media complaining that the local public security and procuratorial organs had not filed a case in time and had not investigated it properly.
In response, the Linxia Hui autonomous prefecture authorities formed a joint investigation team to work on the case and the men were soon arrested on suspicion of rape.
All four men were local to Linxia and met the girl in person for the first time on July 30, 2021, when she was 12 years old.
According to the court, two men surnamed Ma and Si raped the victim on the day, and the two were sentenced to 15 years and 14 years in prison, respectively.
One man who assisted in the rape was sentenced to six years in prison.
Another man surnamed Zhou, who raped the girl the following day, was sentenced to seven years in prison.
The court identified that the defendants knew the victim was under the age of 14 when they raped her, and refuted their arguments at trial that they didn't know the fact.
According to Chinese law, engaging in sex with a girl under the age of 14, whether consented to or not, is identified as rape.
The prefecture's supervisory organs conducted an inspection of judicial officials' performance in June 2022, and 12 police officers and prosecutors were given disciplinary and administrative punishments.
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