The Chinese students accused of kidnapping and torturing a peer stand trial at the Pomona Superior Court in Pomona, California, on June 3, 2015. [Photo: sohu.com]

Three Chinese students studying in the U.S. have been sentenced to jail for a period of at least six years for kidnapping and assaulting a fellow student.

A court in Los Angeles pronounced the sentences on Wednesday.

Zhai Yunyao, Yang Yuhan, and Zhang Xinlei, were respectively sentenced to 13, 10 and 6 years in prison. Once they are released from the prison, they will be deported from the United States immediately.

All the three were born in 1996 and are students at Oxford School, a private middle school for Grades 7-12 in Rowland Heights, California.

They were convicted of kidnapping and assaulting a fellow Chinese student surnamed Liu.

According to Liu's statement to police, she was lured by a primary-school peer to "discuss something." Liu was then forced into a car and taken to a nearby park.

There, Liu said she was beaten by a group of girls and stripped naked by them.

The assault lasted five hours and left Liu seriously injured.

The case has shown a lack of knowledge by Chinese students and their parents concerning U.S. laws.

According to Deng Hong, a lawyer overseeing the case, the father of one of the defendants attempted to pay off a witness in the assault, attempting to "settle" the situation. He was eventually arrested for bribing a witness.