Govt-vehicle campaigner says he was framed, claims incident was a ‘trap’

A Guangzhou-based graft-fighter on Thursday denied that he had solicited prostitutes after being held for five days in Changsha, Hunan Province for the alleged offence, calling it a "trap."

After his Thursday release, Ou Shaokun - known to the public as Uncle Ou for his campaign against the use of government vehicles for personal purposes - told the Global Times that he did not have sex with the women who were detained with him in Changsha and that he was not guilty as there was no agreement between him and the women.

Changsha police announced Sunday that the 62-year-old resident of Guangzhou, Guangdong Province had been detained for allegedly soliciting prostitutes.

Ou and another man, surnamed Xian, were seized in a hotel along with two women in their 20s at around 11 pm on March 26. The police said the women confessed to selling sex and the men confessed to soliciting prostitutes while in custody.

Ou said he and his friend Xian Yaojun were invited to travel to Hunan with by a netizen surnamed Wang on March 24. Wang's friend, surnamed Chen, entertained the three at a karaoke bar of a local hotel on March 26, drinking wine and paying several hostesses to sing with them.

Wang and Chen urged Ou to go back to his room as the wine had made him feel unwell. He said he turned down Chen's repeated suggestion that a hostess accompany him to his room. But a woman entered his room 10 minutes later, taking a shower and then undressing herself.

Ou said he believed the woman simply wanted to shower in his room due to the heat, despite the fact that she caressed his thigh before heading into the bathroom.

Policemen broke into the room when they were kissing, according to Ou.

"As a man, it was hard to control myself while looking at a woman undressing herself," Ou recalled. "But we did not have sex."

"I never have such urges [to solicit prostitutes], nor did I pay her. Then why did someone hire a prostitute for me? It must be a trap," Ou said.

The police declined to comment when reached by the Global Times.

According to a senior police officer of the public security bureau that arrested Ou, the police must have obtained solid evidence in order to have detained him and it is "impossible" that he was wrongly seized, the news portal sohu.com reported Thursday.

Ou said he plans to sue the police but did not specify when he plans to do so.

Meanwhile, the government-vehicle campaigner added that he would keep supervising the abuse of official vehicle privileges, because an imperfect citizen still has the right to oversee the government.