Chinese Rapper Kris Wu Has Been Sentenced To 13 Years In Prison For Raping Three Women
One of China’s biggest stars, rapper and former EXO member, Kris Wu, has been sentenced to 13 years in prison after a court found him guilty of raping three women.
One of China’s biggest stars, rapper and former EXO member, Kris Wu, has been sentenced to 13 years in prison after a court found him guilty of raping three women.
Wu was arrested in August 2021 after more than 20 women, some underage, said he had lured them into having sex with him in July that year.
The #MeToo movement had started with 19-year-old Chinese university student Du Meizhu, who said on Weibo that Wu had raped her after her agent invited her to his house under the guise of helping her with her acting career and pressured her to drink alcohol until she passed out.
In her post, Du shared screenshots of one of Wu’s associates contacting her after to ask her how much money she needed to keep quiet and threatening legal action when she demanded a public apology.
Du said 500,000 yuan ($80,000) was then transferred into her bank account without her consent.
Over several posts, Du said she decided to speak out because she wanted to be “the last victim” as she believed the women he was seducing were “getting younger and younger”.
Du said Wu would drug and rape women, including underaged girls, “selecting women like concubines at a table.”
Her posts went viral and sparked a #MeToo movement, with one post receiving more than 10 million likes.
24 other women then came forward to share their own experiences of being pressured into having sex with Wu, the Washington Post reported.
He was then dropped by dozens of major brands including Bulgari, Lancome, Louis Vuitton and Porsche, and arrested.
Wu had denied the allegations.
In a statement posted on social media on Friday Nov. 25, a court in Beijing said Wu had been found guilty of raping three women when they were drunk in his home in 2020, as well as “gathering a crowd to engage in promiscuous activities.”
The court also said that Wu, who has Canadian citizenship, after he served his sentence.
Additionally, he was fined 600 million yuan (US$84 million) for tax evasion.
“This day has finally arrived,” Du wrote on Weibo following the verdict. “I am very grateful for China’s legal system that does not spare any criminals, even if he is a big star.”
