Swingers given jail terms

• Source: Global Times
• [04:25 May 21 2010]
• Comments

Ma Yaohai, a college professor, talks to reporters at home in Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu Province, on April 6. Ma, nicknamed "the swinger professor" for organizing a swingers' club and holding orgies, was sentenced Thursday to 3.5 years in prison. Photo: CFP

By Song Shengxia and Lin Meilian

A professor was sentenced Thursday to three and a half years in prison for organizing a swingers' club and holding orgies in east Jiangsu Province.

Ma Yaohai, 53, an associate professor at an unidentified institution, was charged with "group licentiousness" by the Qinhuai District Court in Nanjing, the Procuratorial Daily reported Thursday. It was the first conviction in the country on such a charge in 20 years, according to the China News Service.

Twenty-one other people involved in the case were given sentences of up to 2.5 years.

The maximum sentence for the crime is five years' imprisonment, according to criminal law.

Ma, along with his fellow swingers, was arrested last year and indicted March 10. Ma was the only defendant who pleaded not guilty and received a relatively harsher sentence because he "has never clearly understood the harm and illegality of his own conduct," the

 China News Service quoted the court verdict as saying.

Xue Huogen, one of Ma's attorneys, told the Global Times that he was not surprised at the sentence and that his client would appeal.

"Ma is innocent because the activity is private and based on mutual agreement among the people involved. It did not disrupt public order," Xue said.

Ma became interested in swinging in 2003 after being divorced twice. He set up a chatroom in 2007, and the swingers' club drew over 190 followers, the Oriental Morning Post reported.

Police said he organized 35 swingers' parties from 2007 to 2009, 14 of which took place at his own apartment, and the remainder at hotels and other people's apartments. Ma personally participated in 18 sessions. The remaining individuals, arrested along with Ma last year, were office workers, taxi drivers and sales clerks, aged between 27 and 53.

"I didn't do anything wrong. And there was no forcing or organizing. Why is the whole country picking on me?" Ma told Phoenix Satellite Television the day before his trial in April, adding that even his two sons support him.