Mother of gang rape accused turns attention on alleged victim

The lawyer for the son of two famous military singers, who is implicated in an alleged gang rape, has appealed for an investigation into the alleged victim for prostitution and extortion, in the Tuesday pre-trial conference.

"This is the second pre-trial conference of this case. Except for evidence examination, we appealed to the judge to conduct an investigation into the plaintiff in an effort to achieve justice," Lan He, legal counsel for the suspect, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Li, the 17-year-old son of two singers in the People's Liberation Army (PLA), was accused along with four others of raping a girl, surnamed Yang, at a Beijing hotel after they drank in a night club in February.

The mother of Li, surnamed Meng, has submitted several letters to the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau recently in an attempt to push for an investigation.

The letters highlighted Meng's suspicion that Yang was a prostitute and Li had been extorted by both the girl and the night club after the incident.

Meng also appealed to the country's Ministry of Public Security on Monday, but no official response has been heard from the ministry .

Tian Canjun, the lawyer of the alleged victim, claimed that the appeals of Li's mother won't affect sentencing at the trial. Tian said he reserves the right to sue Meng as the petition letter could violate Yang's privacy, according to a Tuesday report released by news portal chinanews.com.

Meng's letter suggests that Yang had seduced Li and four other men and received 2,000 yuan ($327) for sex. It also claimed that Li began to receive threatening messages from Yang and some staff members of the club, who claimed that they would remain silent if Li agreed to pay 500,000 yuan, according to a report released by Legal Mirror, a Beijing-based newspaper, on August 8.

Tian said that Yang was in a poor mental state caused by the gang rape and is going through psychological therapy, according to chinanews.com.