Beijing, Jan 21 (IANS): A Chinese man, who kept six female sex slaves in a dungeon and killed two of them, was executed Tuesday.

According to the Luoyang Intermediate People's Court, Li Hao, 36, was convicted of murder, rape, illegal detention, organised prostitution and making porn videos for profit. He was sentenced to death, deprived of political rights for life and fined 10,000 yuan in November 2012, Xinhua reported.

A higher court in Henan province upheld the ruling after Li lodged an appeal. The death penalty has been approved by the Supreme People's Court.

Li himself dug the dungeon under a basement, which he bought in Luoyang in August 2009. The six women Li tricked into coming home with him were held there.

Li, a clerk with the Luoyang technological supervision bureau, repeatedly raped the women, forced them to appear in obscene online shows from March to April 2011 and forced them to have sex with customers for a few days from late August to early September in 2011.

The dungeon was discovered when one of the women escaped and went to police.

In a bizarre twist in the case, Duan, Jiang and Zhang, three of Li's sex slaves, were also found guilty of murder, having killed two other women in the dungeon on Li's instructions. The three women were shown leniency. Duan, who killed both the women, was sentenced to three years in prison, while the other two were put on probation.

According to police, Li's motive was to make money by forcing the women into prostitution or to appear in obscene videos.

The women had worked at bars, hair salons and a massage parlour before they fell victim to Li. When arrested in September 2011, Li was married and had an eight-month-old son.

Li was executed "according to law" after meeting close relatives in a detention house in Luoyang, according to a statement issued by the Supreme People's Court.