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Li Shuaitao was sentenced to two years in prison by a court in Beijing on Friday for facilitating prostitution, after a video had appeared online in which he appeared to assault and attempt to kidnap a woman from a Beijing hotel.
The Chaoyang District People's Court in Beijing announced its sentence at about 2 pm. Li was tried on Oct 28. He was also fined 5,000 yuan ($740).
Li, 25, was convicted of introducing two prostitutes to two customers in the Yitel Hotel in eastern Beijing's Chaoyang district on March 1 and 9. He gained a total of 1,300 yuan for the deals.
Li confessed to the crimes in court, but did not say if he would appeal.
Footage of Li attacking a woman at the hotel began circulating after it was posted online in April.
After he was arrested in Xuchang, Henan province, about 760 kilometers from Beijing, Li confessed that he had been handing out cards to advertise prostitutes in the hotel when he saw a woman he assumed was a competitor. He contacted his gang to have her forcibly removed from the hotel.
Experts believe that the case exposes lapses in the hotel's management.
Sources in the court said that Li was never questioned by hotel staff members when he was distributing cards. When he attacked the woman on April 3, a security guard noticed but did not intervene.
"Hotels are obliged to ensure safety to customers," said Yi Shenghua, an attorney with Yingke Law Firm in Beijing. "Regulations should be tightened to prevent such incidents."
