A former UI student has been sentenced to 17 years in prison for third-degree sexual abuse on Monday

Peng Tang, 22, pleaded guilty on Feb. 11 to third-degree sexual abuse, extortion, and solicitation to commit tampering with a witness. This was part of a plea deal made prior to his scheduled trial. His guilty plea to sexual abuse was an Alford plea, allowing Tang to maintain his innocence while admitting that a jury would likely find him guilty based on existing evidence.

After Tang completes his sentence, Johnson County prosecutor Janet Lyness said, he will be sent to immigration custody.  Tang’s attorney was unable to be reached. 

On March 29, 2012, Tang kidnapped a woman and sexually assaulted her while visiting her apartment for a possible sublet. He locked her bedroom door and attempted to tie her arms behind her back and gag her before assaulting her. Before leaving the apartment, he took photos of her and threatened to put them on the Internet if she called the police.

On March 30, Tang was charged with first-degree kidnapping, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

While being held in the Johnson County Jail, Tang reportedly wrote to a friend and asked him to find the victim and convince her to drop the charge against him. He asked his friend to persuade her to tell the police she lied and they had engaged in consensual sex and that if she did this, Tang would promise her anything.

As a result of this letter, Tang was charged with solicitation to commit an aggravated misdemeanor and tamper with a witness.

On April 11, Tang’s parents also reportedly attempted to bribe the victim to changer her story.

Xuefan Tang, 57, and Li Qiao, 49, were charged with tampering with a witness, but the charges were later dropped due to cultural difference.

Earlier this year, Tang was charged with additional charges of burglary and theft, but they were dropped as part of his plea deal.