The mainland has executed an army officer for spying for Taiwan, a Hong Kong newspaper said, but officials yesterday declined to confirm the report in Ta Kung Pao.
According to the report, a military court found Dai Yibiao , a 33-year-old lieutenant in the People's Liberation Army, guilty of transferring over the internet 116 files to a Taiwanese organisation in return for 82,160 yuan (HK$93,891). Nine of the files were top secret, and the others either classified or secret.
A court under the Nanjing Military Region handed down the original sentence, and Dai was executed by gunshot on Friday after an appeal had been rejected and the nation's highest court had upheld the decision, according to the report.
But a spokeswoman for China's Supreme People's Court said she was unaware of the case, while a spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office in Beijing declined to comment.
A photo of a court statement about the case appeared on the internet, but its authenticity could not be confirmed.
Dai, a native of Zhejiang province , joined the army in 1995, the report said. He originally led a platoon. The Nanjing Military Region groups Zhejiang along with Shanghai and the provinces of Fujian , Jiangxi , Jiangsu and Anhui .