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.

Hot topic

Ma's trial and sentencing touched off heated debate in China, a society that has undergone remarkable social changes since the early 1980s and where attitudes toward sex have changed dramatically.

In the early 1980s, couples would feel embarrassed holding hands and kissing in public. However, multiple surveys suggest that Chinese youths seem more open toward premarital sex than their parents were.

Ma has received both support and criticism, with some believing it was Ma's freedom to be engaged in group sex, and others decrying the activity as morally corrupted and a shocking crime.

Sociologists and legal experts also debate whether the conviction is fair and whether "group licentiousness" has grounds to exist in modern Chinese society.

Changing times

The charge of "group licentiousness" can be traced back to 1979, when the then criminal law charged and criminalized anyone with "hooliganism" who had premarital sex or engaged in sexual activities in groups of three or more people, or even for dancing with people of the opposite sex.

Chi Zhiqiang, a film star in the 1980s who later won even greater popularity nationwide for his song "Tears Behind Bars," was charged with hooliganism and sentenced to four year in prison in 1984 for activities ranging from having consensual sex with a divorced woman to dancing face to face with a group of women and men.

An even more severe case involved a woman in Shaanxi Province, who was sentenced to death in the 1980s for dancing in a group of men and having intimate relationships with men, the Legal Weekly reported.

In 1997, "group licentiousness" was written into China's Criminal Law as a separate charge after hooliganism was dropped from the law.

The law stipulates that a "leader," or anyone who participates in group sex with three or more people, can face up to five years in jail.

Li Yinhe, a sociologist with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), expressed disappointment at the conviction of the "group licentiousness" crime.

"Abolishing the crimes of hooliganism and counter-revolution in 1997 marked a great social improvement. Otherwise, Ma and others might have been sentenced to death," Li told the Global Times.

"But the existence of the group licentiousness law shows that society has not improved as fast as was expected," she added.

Before the conviction, Li wrote on her blog, "The number of people involved in this is not big, the activity is based on mutual agreement, it does not harm other people, and it does not harm society."

He Bing, a law professor at China University of Political Science and Law, told the Global Times that group licentiousness is in itself a disputable charge, because questions remain on whether swinging is a moral issue or a legal issue.

"However, the case is a legal problem since the crime exists in criminal law," He said.

Liu Renwen, a criminal law expert at CASS, told the Global Times that the sentence is reasonable according to the current law, but he conceded that it remained disputable since the activities were carried out with the consent of all participants, without economic profits, and were held in private places.

"There should be some specific description of how to define an action as committing a crime instead of providing a general description like the current term in criminal law," Liu said.

Fang Gang, a sexologist in Beijing, told the Global Times that the case can help promote public debate and reflection within judicial circles.

"The scrapping of the group licentiousness law is only a matter of time. I believe it will be gone in 20 years," he said.

Kang Juan contributed to this story