China executes five mafia-style gang members

WUHAN - Five members of a mafia-style gang case were executed on Monday by a court in central China's Hubei province.

With the approval of the Supreme People's Court, the Xianning Intermediate People's Court executed Liu Han, his brother Liu Wei, Tang Xianbing, Zhang Donghua and Tian Xianwei.

The court organized meetings between the criminals and their families prior to the executions, said the court.

The Liu brothers and 34 other defendants were convicted of organizing, leading or participating in a gang as well as murder in May last year.

The five defendants were sentenced to death, another five were sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve, four to life imprisonment and 22 to imprisonment of different terms.

The higher people's court in Hubei upheld the five men's verdicts in August.

Liu Han was board chairman of the Hanlong Group, the biggest private enterprise in southwest China's Sichuan Province. He owned subsidiary companies in the electricity, energy, finance, mining, real estate and securities industries.

According to court verdicts after the first trial, the group led by the Liu brothers was identified as a criminal organization as it had an established hierarchy and regular members and profited from criminal activities.

The organization, which was harbored and indulged by government officials, illegally monopolized the gaming business in Guanghan City in Sichuan Province, tyrannized local people and seriously harmed the local economic and social order.