By Zhang Yan

An appeal court upheld the 10-year sentence of a man who opened a film studio to trick movie hopefuls into prostitution.

The appeal took place at the Beijing No 1 Intermediate Court yesterday. Hu Weidong, 49, from Henan province, manipulated more than 10 girls searching for acting roles, including underage Beijing twins known as "Baobao and Azi," to have sex with him, his assistants and wealthy clients, as part of their role in his studio.

In October, Hu was convicted of organizing prostitution and sentenced to 10 years, with an additional fine of 100,000 yuan by Haidian district court.

At the time, he vowed immediately to appeal.

His two assistants, Meng Qingbo and Sun Qiao, were also convicted of aiding prostitution and organizing promiscuity.

Meng was sentenced to seven years with a fine of 20,000 yuan, and Sun was given three years with the same fine, at Haidian court last October.

Wan Xuejian, the judge in charge of the case yesterday at the criminal tribunal of the no. 1 intermediate court, told METRO the previous verdict from Haidian court was made with clear facts, strong evidence and lawful procedure.

Hu set up his movie studio in 2007. Between September 2007 and May 2008, he used his assistants to recruit more than 10 young female actors.

They asked the girls to follow the "hidden rules", meaning that they should have sex with stakeholders in exchange for property and roles in movies and TV dramas.

Initially, Hu had sex with them while Sun filmed the process.

Hu then asked the girls to find wealthy middle-aged men on the web to have sex with, and demand money in the name of studio investment.

Hu agreed to split the income with the girls.

Hu told METRO yesterday the 10 girls had sexual relationships with more than 30 clients.

The money they asked for ranged between 3,000 yuan and 1 million yuan, in addition to goods such as mobiles and Sony PSP gaming devices.

In October 2007, Hu and Meng had sex with the 17-year-old twins at a hotel near Weigongcun, Haidian district, in the name of helping them enter the entertainment circle.

Later, the twin sisters were told to have sex with two clients several times to get 20,000 yuan and a Nokia N95 mobile phone.

The girls revealed their stories in their blog in a public letter to the police chief of Haidian district in May 2008.

This led to the arrest of Hu and his accomplices.

"I don't consider it as my fault.I made everything clear to the girls but they were just valuable commodities. It's inevitable for them to have relationship with investors and directors," Hu told METRO.

Judge Wan said the criminals made use of the young girls' psychological immaturity and their vanity.

This article was first published in China Daily/Asia News Network.