Chinese-born Canadian rapper and actor, Wu Yi Fan, known professionally as Kris Wu, has been jailed for 13 years for sex crimes by a Beijing court in China.
Last year, Wu was formally arrested on suspicion of rape. The first allegations of his predatory behaviour- which included claims of date rape and preying on underage girls- were made on July 18, 2021.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports that on 25 November 2022, the Beijing court convicted the 32-year-old Chinese-Canadian hip-hop star Wu, He was arrested by the Chinese police on August 16.
In a statement, the Chaoyang District People’s Court confirmed that the 32-year-old Chinese-Canadian hip-hop star would be deported after serving his sentence.
“The Chaoyang District People’s Court believes that Wu Yifan’s actions constituted rape and group lewdness, and should be punished under law,” the statement added, with the court saying that, in late 2020, Wu forced three women to have sex with him and arranged “lewd activities” at his home.
Prior to his arrest, authorities stated that Wu was detained “in response to relevant information reported on the internet”, which included claims that the former K-pop idol and brand ambassador had “repeatedly deceived young women into sexual relations”. Days after he was detained, another woman from Los Angeles accused Wu of raping her as a teenager. Wu has strenuously denied all the allegations against him.
Wu was reportedly tried at the Chaoyang District People’s Court. A verdict is yet to be decided, but as Variety notes, Chinese courts have a 99.9 percent conviction rate. The average jail sentence for an offender convicted on rape charges is three to 10 years, though unusually heinous cases can result in escalated punishments, including life sentences and the death penalty.
The artist was born in China, but is a Canadian citizen. Last November, it was revealed by the China Association Of Performing Arts that Wu was among 88 celebrities that had been blacklisted in the country for “illegal and unethical behaviour”. According to an official notice posted by the association, the blacklist was created to “strengthen industry self-discipline.”
The convicted serial rapist is a former member of South Korean-Chinese boy band Exo and its subgroup Exo-M under SM Entertainment, before leaving the group in 2014.
Wu was active as a solo artist and actor in Mainland China, and had starred in several number-one box office hits including Mr. Six and Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back, which are among the highest-grossing Chinese films of all time in China. He made his Hollywood debut in XXX: Return of Xander Cage.
On 31 July 2021, Wu was detained by Beijing police after multiple rape allegations emerged on Chinese social media. In August 2021, the People’s Procuratorate of Chaoyang District of Beijing approved his arrest on suspicion of rape.
On 25 November 2022, the Beijing court sentenced Wu to a total of 13 years in prison, to be followed by deportation from China.