A man on trial for imprisoning two young women in his private dungeon for months denied in a local court Wednesday that he raped them more than a hundred times.

Zeng Qiangbao, 39, also denied that he had beaten the two women, who were identified as Xiao Qian and Xiao Fei, in the Wuhan Intermediate People's Court in Hubei Province Wednesday. The prosecutor is calling for Zeng to be executed.

"I did not rape Xiao Qian and Xiao Fei more than 100 times. I don't know where that figure comes from," Zeng said in court. "I am not trying to escape the death penalty. But I also have children, and I merely hope for a fair verdict based on true evidence."

Prosecutors accuse Zeng, a local kiln worker, of raping 11 women in Qingshan district from July 2007 to May 2010.

The plights of Xiao Qian and Xiao Fei were discovered on May 14 by a TV repairman who found a note stuffed inside a TV set. The repairman called the phone number written on the note, and was answered by the father of Xiao Qian.

Police rescued the two women the same day, and found them imprisoned naked and their feet shackled in iron chains. They had previously written a number of notes that were tucked inside garbage bags.

Prosecutors said Xiao Qian had been held captive for 590 days and raped over 100 times, while Xiao Fei had been held captive for 317 days and raped about 10 times.

Zeng told the court that he knew his crime would be discovered. "But I never thought of letting them go," he said.

The prosecutor called for the death penalty for Zeng as he had used threats and electric shocks to torture the women, acts that "posed a significant threat to society."

However, the defense lawyer told the court that Zeng did not cause any deaths or severe bodily harm.

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