Beijing, May 23 (IANS): A Chinese court Friday sentenced a former mining tycoon to death on charges of organising and leading "mafia-style crime and murder", a media report said.
Liu Han was found guilty by the Xianning Intermediate People's Court in central China's Hubei Province which announced the verdicts for the first trials of 36 members of the alleged mafia-like gang led by Liu, Xinhua reported.
Along with Han, his brother Liu Wei was also sentenced to death on the same charges. Both were convicted of leading a criminal organisation as well as murder, a court statement said.
They were deprived of all political rights and the court will confiscate all their personal property, the statement said.
The 36 defendants were prosecuted in seven trials, the last of which ended April 19.
It was the largest criminal group to go on trial in China in recent years.
Besides the brothers, three members were also sentenced to death, five were sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve, four to life imprisonment and 22 to imprisonment for different terms.
Three former civil servants among the accused -- Liu Xuejun and Lyu Bin, former police officers, and Liu Zhongwei, a former prosecutor -- were sentenced to 16 years, 11 years and 13 years in prison respectively for harbouring Liu's organisation and taking bribes.
The organisation led by the two brothers and assisted by government officials, illegally monopolised the gaming business in Guanghan City in southwest China's Sichuan Province, and tyrannised local people, the court said.