Liu Han was the chairman of Sichuan Hanlong Group, a private conglomerate with interests in mining, property and energy, and one of the wealthiest businessmen in China. In May 2014 the Xianning Intermediate People's Court in Hubei province convicted him of "organising and leading a mafia-style group," intentional homicide and other offenses, and sentenced him to death. The court held that the gang he led with his younger brother, Liu Wei, was responsible for eight deaths over nearly twenty years and for many woundings. The Hubei High People's Court rejected his appeal in August 2014, the Supreme People's Court approved the sentence, and on February 9, 2015 the Xianning court announced that he had been executed, together with his brother and three other men from the same case.
The case drew attention far beyond the criminal charges. Liu Han's businesses had reached Australia and the United States, he ranked among China's richest people, and his rise coincided with the years in which Zhou Yongkang, later China's security chief, led the party in Sichuan. The court described a gang with close ties to officials.
Liu Han was born in Sichuan, and was 48 when he was executed. Prosecutors said that he and his brother had begun organising their group in 1993. By the early 2010s Hanlong was a large conglomerate, and when he was detained its assets were put at 40 billion yuan, or 6.4 billion dollars. He ranked 148th among China's richest people in 2012.
He held public positions of the kind that signalled standing in the province. He was deputy chairman of the Sichuan General Chamber of Commerce and had served three terms as a delegate to the provincial People's Political Consultative Conference, an advisory body. He carried the Olympic torch in the 2008 Beijing relay and paid for an elementary school in Sichuan. He also chaired a listed chemical company, Sichuan Jinlu Group.
His businesses were also expanding abroad. In October 2011 Hanlong launched a bid of more than a billion Australian dollars for Sundance Resources, an Australian iron ore company with a project in Cameroon, and the group was arranging a loan to a United States mining company. Both arrangements fell apart in 2013 after Liu Han was detained.
The business with the most lasting political consequence was Liu Han's relationship with Zhou Bin, the son of Zhou Yongkang. Zhou Bin sold Liu a Sichuan tourism company in 2003 and held a share in a Hanlong power company from about 2005 before returning it. Zhou Yongkang, who had served as Sichuan party chief and later as China's security chief, retired in 2012, was placed under investigation in 2014, with his arrest announced on December 5 of that year, and was sentenced in June 2015, four months after Liu Han was executed, to life imprisonment for bribery, abuse of power and intentionally disclosing national secrets. The Zhou case was a separate proceeding.
According to the prosecution, Liu Han and Liu Wei created the group in 1993 with 34 others, and it "carried out a vast number of criminal activities." The court's description of its activities at the time of the executions was that the gang "monopolized the gaming business in a city in Sichuan" and "tyrannized local people." The indictment of February 20, 2014 listed fifteen crimes against the brothers, including murder, assault, illegal detention, interference in state functions, affray, extortion, gambling, weapons offenses and fraud. Prosecutors also said the group had recruited and corrupted state officials for protection, and three officials in city-level police and prosecutors' offices in Sichuan were named among those accused alongside the 36 defendants.
The indictment alleged nine deaths; the court's finding at verdict was eight over nearly twenty years. The event the charge sheet singled out was the killing of three people in Guanghan, Sichuan, in 2009, which prosecutors said Liu Wei had organised and which led to his being wanted by police. Liu Wei then fled, and Liu Han was accused of helping him to evade capture.
Liu Han was detained in Beijing in March 2013, shortly after attending the annual session of the National People's Congress. He was investigated for helping his brother to escape and for other serious offenses. His brother was by then in police custody over the 2009 triple killing.
The detention stopped Hanlong's foreign projects. The Australian company's chairman said he could not reach Liu Han, and the American company suspended work on its loan. In April 2013 the Ministry of Public Security assigned the case to prosecutors in Hubei, which took it out of Sichuan. Liu Han was formally arrested in July 2013. The investigation extended over more than ten provinces and cities, including Beijing.
On February 20, 2014 it was announced that Liu Han, Liu Wei and 34 associates had been charged by prosecutors in Hubei. The charges were fifteen crimes, including murder, assault, illegal detention, blackmail and operating casinos, together with interference in state functions, affray, extortion, weapons offenses and fraud. Hanlong itself was accused of fraud involving bank loans.
The case was to be heard outside Sichuan, at the Xianning Intermediate People's Court. The 36 defendants were prosecuted together in seven separate cases.
The hearing opened at the end of March 2014 and ran for 21 days, adjourning on April 19. The court announced its progress on its official microblog. Liu Han denied most of the allegations, including that he had run a criminal gang.
The court delivered its judgment on Friday, May 23, 2014. It found Liu Han guilty of 13 crimes, among them "organising and leading a mafia-style group," intentional homicide, running illegal gambling establishments and weapons offenses, and sentenced him to death. The court said the brothers' "acts were exceptionally atrocious" and their "social influences were extremely vile," and that they should be punished severely under the law.
Liu Wei was also sentenced to death, along with three other defendants. Those three, Tang Xianbing, Zhang Donghua and Tian Xianwei, were later executed with the brothers. Of the remaining 31 defendants, five received suspended death sentences, four life imprisonment and 22 terms of imprisonment of between three and twenty years. A suspended death sentence is normally commuted to life imprisonment. The brothers' personal assets were confiscated, and Hanlong, convicted of fraud in connection with bank loans, was fined 300 million yuan.
The five condemned men appealed. On Thursday, August 7, 2014 the Hubei High People's Court rejected the appeals and upheld the death sentences, leaving the terms of imprisonment and fines as they were. Under rules in force since January 1, 2007, a death sentence from a provincial court must also be reviewed and approved by the Supreme People's Court before it can be carried out. The Supreme People's Court approved the sentences.
On Monday, February 9, 2015 the Xianning Intermediate People's Court announced that Liu Han, Liu Wei, Tang Xianbing, Zhang Donghua and Tian Xianwei had been executed. The court described the case as "extremely vile and harmful." It also stated that the five had met close relatives beforehand and that their legal rights had been fully protected. The executions came less than three months after the arrest of Zhou Yongkang was announced and about four months before his sentence.
Chinese criminal procedure places cases of this kind in an intermediate people's court, with a first appeal to the provincial high court. Since 2007, every death sentence must then be reviewed by the Supreme People's Court. Death sentences can also be suspended for two years, after which they are normally commuted to life imprisonment, and five of the defendants in this case received that sentence.
The verdict came during the anti-corruption campaign led by President Xi Jinping, which was already reaching the circle around Zhou Yongkang. Local media were barred from independent reporting on the case.
Liu Han denied the central charge, that he led a criminal gang, and said he had been framed. He also said that his confessions had been obtained by coercion.
The extent of official protection for the gang went untested in public beyond the three local officials named among the accused. The link between the Liu brothers and the Zhou family was one of business dealings; Zhou Yongkang's own case was heard separately.
1993: prosecutors say Liu Han and Liu Wei began organising their group.
2003: Zhou Bin sells Liu Han a Sichuan tourism company.
2008: Liu Han carries the Olympic torch in Beijing.
2009: three people killed in Guanghan, Sichuan; Liu Wei becomes wanted by police.
October 2011: Hanlong launches its bid for Sundance Resources.
2012: Liu Han ranks 148th among China's richest people.
March 2013: Liu Han detained in Beijing.
April 2013: the case is assigned to prosecutors in Hubei.
July 2013: Liu Han formally arrested.
February 20, 2014: charges against 36 defendants announced.
Late March 2014: trial opens at Xianning.
April 19, 2014: hearing adjourns.
May 23, 2014: death sentence for Liu Han, Liu Wei and three others.
August 7, 2014: Hubei High People's Court rejects the appeals.
February 9, 2015: executions announced by the Xianning court.
June 11, 2015: Zhou Yongkang sentenced to life imprisonment, in a separate case.