Real estate tycoon Wang Zhenhua, who was on Wednesday found guilty of sexually molesting a 9-year-old girl, has maintained his innocence and will be appealing the sentence, his lawyer announced on Thursday.
Wang, who is a native of Changzhou, Jiangsu province, was on Wednesday sentenced to five years in prison by the Shanghai Putuo District Court.
The incident involving Wang and the girl took place in a five-star hotel in Shanghai last year.
According to a report by Xinmin Evening News, a friend of the girl's mother took the child to the city on the pretext of visiting Disneyland, but eventually took the girl to the hotel to meet Wang.
The chief judge of the case told People's Court Daily that Wang molested a minor under 12 years old and left her with a level 2 minor injury, which both constituted the maximum punishment for molestation.
Child molestation refers to sexually assaulting a child in a way that doesn't include sexual intercourse.
The friend, Zhou Yanfen, was sentenced to four years in prison on Wednesday.
The trial, which was closed to the public to protect the identity of the minor, spanned 16 hours on Tuesday and Wednesday.
"Wang has never been a pedophile or a sexual abuser, and the investigation by the public security bureau cleared him of any suspicion of assaulting the girl," wrote Wang's lawyer Chen Youxi in his announcement on Baidu.
"He did not retract his confession, and his statement was consistent throughout the investigation, prosecution and hearing at court – he denies sexually molesting the girl."
The lawyer wrote that he has been following the public opinion about the case, including the criticism against the court and the defendant after the verdict was out. Some netizens view the five-year sentence as too light a penalty.
"If online discussions revealed the truth, I, like the netizens, would hate the suspect and not defend him. Chinese lawyers do not merely abide by the work ethics of safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of our clients in accordance with the law, but are people in the community who pursue justice and support the weak according to moral ethics," wrote Chen.
He also pointed out that there has been an imbalance in the information being disseminated to the public, explaining that while the girl sought help from the media, which led to an outpouring of public sympathy and outrage, Wang has been tight-lipped about the case.
"Wang, his family members and companies do not reply to any queries. The public has only received partial information from his part about the case," he said.
Chen noted that he and the other lawyer involved in defending Wang have not accepted any interviews or divulged details of the case to the public. He wrote that "all online information about their comments on the case is groundless and speculative."
"We will continue to ignore public criticism and not respond to online comments. All facts will be presented to the court in the second trial," he wrote.
"We look forward to a fair verdict in the second trial."
According to the plaintiff's lawyer, the defendant had attempted to offer 500,000 yuan ($706,400) as compensation through a third party but was refused.
