Beijing: Wo Weihan, a Chinese scientist and businessman, has been executed following his conviction on charges of spying for Taiwan, a US-based human rights organization reported Friday.

Wo, 60, had reportedly been allowed to see his family for the last time Thursday, having been convicted of espionage by the Beijing Number Two People's Court and sentenced to death in 2007, the Dui Hua Foundation, which campaigns for human rights in China, said.

The scientist had been convicted in the closed court of providing Taiwanese intelligence agents with top-secret military intelligence, some of which consisted of photocopies of publications accessed from the library of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, as well as information about the health of a top Chinese leader.

Wo, a former biomedical researcher and later founder of a medical equipment company, had lived in Austria during the 1990s.

The Austrian government, the US government, the European Union and various human rights organizations had appealed to the Chinese authorities for clemency.

Dui Hua estimates that between 5,000 and 6,000 executions were carried out by the Chinese state in 2007.

Source : IANS