Defendant Chen Jizhi, the prime culprit involved in the harassment and brutal beating of four women at a barbecue restaurant in Tangshan in North China's Hebei Province was sentenced to 24 years in prison and fined 320,000 yuan ($45,215), Guangyang district people's court in Langfang in Hebei announced on Friday. The ruling came out about three months later after the attacking occurred in June this year.
The remaining 27 defendants were sentenced from six months to 11 years in prison in accordance with the law, among the 27 defendants, 19 of them were fined from 3,000 yuan to 135,000 yuan, according to the court ruling.
Chen Jizhi, the prime culprit and other five defendants will correspondingly compensate the four victims for costs incurred for medical treatment, nursing, food subsidies, transportation and other losses, according to the court.
Following the investigation, it was found that defendant Chen attacked one of the victims Wang after the latter declined his inappropriate approach. Later, Chen and other defendants attacked and kicked the four women using chairs and wine bottles, and one of the defendants even threatened victims not to report the incident to the police.
Two of the victims were identified as having suffered class II minor injuries, and the other two suffered mild injuries, according to the ruling.
Chen and other defendants had a history of unlawful conduct since 2012, including illegal detention, affray, intentional injury, opening of casinos, robbery, concealing the proceeds of crime and assisting in the criminal activities of information networks by using violence, threats and other means in Tangshan and other regions throughout the country, according to the court. The gang organization oppressed people, destroyed the local economic and social order, causing a negative impact on the community, the ruling detailed.
On December 12, 2015, Chen, who was allegedly seeking to recover a debt, incited four others to beat up and illegally detain a victim surnamed Shang. Shang suffered mild injuries. On September 23, 2018, Chen instigated others to offer what was known to be a stolen vehicle to cover a loan of 148,000 yuan, according to media reports.