Chinese court upholds pop star Kris Wu's 13-year sentence for sex offenses

Chinese-Canadian pop star Kris Wu's 13-year prison sentence for rape and assembling a crowd to engage in promiscuous activities was upheld by the Beijing No 3 Intermediate People's Court on Friday.

Wu was convicted in November 2022 and sentenced to prison by the Beijing Chaoyang District People's Court, with deportation to follow at the end of his imprisonment.

Wu later lodged an appeal with the intermediate court, which was heard earlier this year.

The court said on Friday that the evidence presented in the original case had been sufficient, the convictions were correct, and the sentence was reasonable.

"The law applied by the lower court was accurate, and the procedure of its case hearing was also legal," it added. "So, we rejected Wu's appeal and upheld the original ruling."

Close relatives of Wu and officials from the Canadian embassy in China attended the announcement of the ruling on Friday.

From November to December 2020, Wu forcibly had sex with three women at his residence against their will after they became drunk and were unable to resist, the Chaoyang district court said in its original judgment.

On July 1, 2018, Wu also worked with others to arrange for two other women to engage in promiscuous activities after they drank alcohol at his home, it said.

Last year, Wu was also fined about 600 million yuan ($83.9 million) by the State Taxation Administration's Beijing Municipal Tax Service for tax evasion.

Wu, 33, a singer and actor born in Guangdong province who once had more than 50 million followers on Sina Weibo, a Chinese instant message service platform, was detained by Chaoyang police on July 31, 2021, after a woman calling herself Du Meizhu posted statements online alleging that Wu had lured young women and girls under the age of 18 to have sex with him under the pretense of recruiting actresses. Du said she was one of the victims.

After Wu's case was exposed, multiple brands cut their business ties with him and his promotional activities were also canceled.

Soon afterward, television, film and music industry associations called on celebrities to focus more on their professions to advance the healthy development of the entertainment industry and set a good example for the public.