The son of a well-known Chinese general has gone on trial charged with taking part in a gang rape.
Li Tianyi, 17, and four other men have denied taking part in the February incident at a Beijing hotel that followed a night of heavy drinking.
Li is the son of Li Shuangjiang, one of China’s most famous military leaders, who has reportedly fallen ill as a result of his son’s arrest.
A group of journalists awaited Li and his four co-defendants as they were driven through the gate of Beijing's Haidian District Court. The case is not open to the public because Li is a minor.
His father Li Shuangjiang is a general famed for singing patriotic anthems for the People's Liberation Army and often stars in television galas.
He was reportedly taken ill after his son was arrested, and was further shamed when evidence emerged that he may have lied about his son’s age to give him a lenient sentence.
The rape charges aren't the younger Li's first brush with the law.
He was sentenced to a year in detention in 2011 as a 15-year-old for attacking a couple over a minor traffic dispute and threatening onlookers, in a case that attracted widespread condemnation online.
He sent to a detention centre for a year after being convicted of assaulting a couple in the street who blocked the path of the BMW he was driving.
Li was ridiculed in the media as a spoiled brat and his father was forced to make a public apology for failing to check his son's bad behavior.
A video has emerged, published by South China Morning Post, showing General Li referring to his 12 year old son in 2006, meaning his son is now 19 and should then possibly have been tried as an adult in the 2010 incident.
Amid anger over corruption and a widening wealth gap, many Chinese have become increasingly impatient with the antics of the ‘wealthy second generation’ seen as using their parents' money and connections to avoid repercussions for illegal or outrageous behavior.
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