China executes billionaire who ran 'mafia-style' gang

Chinese authorities on Monday executed a former mining tycoon connected to the eldest son of retired domestic security chief Zhou Yongkang, himself the focus of a high-profile corruption investigation, state media reported.

The High People's Court in the central province of Hubei ordered the execution of Liu Han, the former chairman of Hanlong Group, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Liu Han, his younger brother Liu Wei and three accomplices were condemned to death in May for "organizing and leading a mafia-style group," murder and other crimes.

Their appeals were unsuccessful and all five were put to death on Monday, the Xianning Intermediate court in the central province of Hubei said on its verified account on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo social networking platform.

The case against Liu was one of the most prominent involving a private businessman since President Xi Jinping took office two years ago and began a campaign against pervasive graft. Liu, a billionaire who once ranked as China's 230th richest person, was tried last year, along with 36 others. 

China last year announced a probe into Zhou Yongkang, one of its most influential politicians of the last decade, in a case that has its roots in a power struggle in the ruling Communist Party.

Sources have told Reuters Liu was once a business associate of Zhou's eldest son, Zhou Bin. State media have not explicitly linked Liu's case to Zhou Yongkang, but have said his rise coincided with Zhou's time as Sichuan's party boss.

Sichuan is one of the power bases of Zhou, who once enjoyed vast power as China's security chief but whose targeting in a corruption investigation was announced in July. Zhou was handed over to prosecutors in December. 

The official announcement of the long-rumored probe into Zhou made him the most senior member of the Communist Party to be investigated since the infamous Gang of Four — a faction that included the widow of founding leader Mao Zedong — were put on trial in 1980.

Wire services