Mafia trial to open in central China on Monday

Thirty-six members of an alleged mafia-style gang will stand trial on Monday on charges including murder, announced a court in central China's Hubei Province on Wednesday.

They are suspected of organizing, leading and participating in the gang as well as intentional homicide, according to a statement from the Xianning Intermediate People's Court.

The trial will begin at 8:30 a.m. on Monday, said the statement.

The gang, allegedly led by Liu Han and Liu Wei, is the largest mafia-style criminal group to be tried in recent years in China.

According to the prosecutors from the Xianning People's Procuratorate, gang members carried out criminal activities from 1993, mainly in neighboring Sichuan Province, grabbing huge economic interests and seriously disturbing local public security, as well as economic and social order.