A court in the capital convicted a security guard of intentional injury for raping his male colleague and sentenced him to one year in jail in what is believed to be the first prosecution of a sexual assault of a man.

The 42-year-old convict, Zhang Hua (alias), was working as a security guard at Haosha Sports Center in Beijing's Chaoyang district when the assault occurred, Chaoyang district people's court press officer Wang Liying told China Daily on Tuesday. The court heard that in the late night of May 9, Zhang raped 18-year-old Li Jun (not his real name) in their dormitory, inflicting minor injuries upon Li.

Li later called the police, who detained Zhang, a native of Northeast China's Jilin province, on the following day.

Zhang was brought to the court on the charge of intentional injury on Aug 30. The judges decided to hear the case in a private session in consideration of the victim's privacy.

In the September verdict, the court ruled that Zhang deliberately injured another person, resulting in minor injuries to the victim, which constituted the crime of intentional injury.

In addition to serving his jail term, Zhang was also ordered to pay Li 20,000 yuan (US$3,026) in compensation.

Rape, as defined by China's criminal law, refers to forcing a female to engage in sexual intercourse against her will. Consequently, Zhang's behavior could not be legally classified as rape.

Although Zhang was convicted of intentional injury rather than rape, he is probably the mainland's first person sentenced for sexually assaulting a man, the Beijing-based Mirror Evening News reported.

"If Zhang had sexually assaulted a woman, he would be charged with rape and face a jail term of at least three years," director of the Beijing-based Zhongguangweitian Law Firm Lu Zheng said.

China University of Political Science and Law professor Hong Daode said he believed the case touched upon a flaw in the country's legal system.

"Legislators hadn't thought about the possibility that men could be rape victims or that women can also rape men," he said.

The law should be changed to include these possibilities as soon as possible, Hong said.

"The frequency of same-gender sexual assaults has continued to dramatically increase in recent years," he said.

Ministry of Health HIV/AIDS and homosexuality expert Zhang Beichuan said: "Many countries' laws stipulate that males can be rape victims, so perpetrators are held criminally responsible. China's criminal law should include such definitions to properly handle such cases in the future."

(China Daily January 5, 2011)