A sex scandal is rocking China after over 100 pictures purporting to show high-ranking government officials taking part in an orgy were published online.
The images, taken in 2007, were leaked to China’s microblogging site Sina Weibo last week, and are said to show at least two members of the country’s Communist Party having a naked party in a dismal-looking hotel room. (Click here for some very NSFW pictures).
One of the men is reported to bear a striking resemblance to Wang Minsheng, secretary of the Communist Party in China’s Lujiang County, ChinaDaily said.
Awkward: This is just one of the pictures causing a commotion
Minsheng immediately claimed the pictures had been Photoshopped by someone attempting to slander him, but appeared to have been caught on the back foot when officials told journalists the images hadn’t been manipulated and that the man in question simply looked an awful lot like him.
A statement from the Lujiang county committee of the Party, described the pictures as "malicious slander" and warned those behind the images would be held legally responsible.
A spokesman for the internet publicity office of the county told the Global Times: "We are furious about this rumour. At first we suspected the photo was modified in PhotoShop, but later we found the original source."
According to The Atlantic Wire, the only person to admit being part of the orgy is a college youth leader called Wang Yu, who, along with his wife, who apparently also participated, was fired from his job and kicked out of the Party.
Yu has insisted the other two men are not government officials.
France 24 points out group sex is illegal in China, where it is punishable by up to five years in prison.
Aside from the political fall-out and the rather harrowing prospect of jail time, there’s also the opinion that these might be the least sexy orgy pictures ever?