Chinese tycoon Wang Zhenhua formally charged with child sexual abuse
- State broadcaster shows 57-year-old former chairman of Future Land Development behind bars in Shanghai detention centre
- 49-year-old woman, identified only as Zhou and accused of procuring girls, is charged with same offence
Prosecutors in Shanghai on Wednesday formally approved the arrest of Chinese tycoon Wang Zhenhua who was detained last week on suspicion of child sexual abuse, state media reported.
“Based on a police investigation, confessions from the suspects, statements from victims and testimony from witnesses, Wang and Zhou are suspected of committing crimes of sexual molestation against children,” Shanghai police said in a statement.
Zhou is a 49-year-old woman identified earlier as having taken two girls, aged nine and 12, to a five-star hotel in Shanghai, where Wang, the 57-year-old former chairman of Hong Kong-listed property firm Future Land Development, is said to have been waiting.
Images of Wang and Zhou behind bars in a detention centre in Shanghai were shown in a report by state broadcaster CCTV. The report named the pair but still pixelated their faces.
News of the suspects’ arrest came after days of online speculation and media reports about Wang and Zhou, both of whom were detained on July 1, three days after a woman had complained to police that her nine-year-old daughter had been sexually assaulted.
One media report said Zhou was friends with the girls’ parents and had told them she was taking the youngsters to Shanghai Disneyland.
