Man, 36, executed for rape, murder of sex slaves

A man from Central China's Henan province who kept six female sex slaves in a dungeon and ultimately forced the killings of two of them was executed on Tuesday.

Li Hao, 36, was convicted of murder, rape, illegal detention, organized prostitution and manufacturing pornography for profit.

He was sentenced to death, deprived of political rights for life and fined 10,000 yuan ($1,650), according to the first instance sentence handed down by Luoyang Intermediate People's Court in November 2012.

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

Li, formerly a clerk with the Luoyang technological supervision bureau, dug the dungeon under a basement he bought in Luoyang in August 2009. Li tricked the six women into coming home with him and held them there for between two and 21 months.

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

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

In a bizarre twist in the case, three of the women held by Li — named Duan, Jiang and Zhang — 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 was found to have killed both women, was sentenced to three years in prison, while the other two were put on probation.

Li's motive was to make money by forcing the women into prostitution or to appear in obscene webcasts, police said. The women had worked at karaoke bars, hair salons and a massage shop before they fell victim to Li. When arrested in September 2011, Li was married and had an 8-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.

After the appalling details of the case were made public, the Luoyang police chief apologized for failing to detect the crime sooner and suspended four police officers.