China has executed a person who poisoned a billionaire gaming tycoon linked to a well-liked Netflix show.
Xu Yao was found guilty of killing Lin Qi, the founding father of the Shanghai-based Yoozoo Games.
Yoozoo Games holds the film adaptation rights for the science-fiction trilogy known by the title of its first book, The Three-Body Problem.
The sci-fi trilogy, by Chinese writer Liu Cixin, has been translated into greater than 40 languages and adapted into television and game productions, including Netflix’s popular 3 Body Problem series released in 2024.
Xu, the previous head of a subsidiary of Yoozoo Games, poisoned Mr Lin in December 2020 over being sidelined by the founder shortly after Xu helped his superior land the Netflix deal, local media reported.
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Xu was convicted in 2024 and executed on May 21, in keeping with local media reports. Mr Lin’s company confirmed the execution in an announcement on Tuesday on the Weibo social media platform.
‘Recently, the case concerning Mr Lin Qi, the founding father of Three-Body Universe, has finally reached its conclusion, and justice has ultimately been served,’ the statement read.
‘All of us at the corporate are deeply grateful for the upholding of justice.’
In line with local media reports, Xu spent a whole lot of 1000’s of Chinese Yuan to purchase highly toxic substances online, including alpha-amanitin, a lethal compound present in some poisonous mushrooms.
He disguised the poisons as probiotic pills, and put them inside coffee capsules, water containers, and whisky bottles, which he then shared with Mr Lin and other company employees.
Mr Lin was taken to the hospital in December 2020 and died a number of days later, on the age of 39. Several others fell unwell but recovered, in keeping with local media.
Mr Liu became the primary Chinese author to win the distinguished Hugo Award, the genre’s biggest prize.
Domestically, the works spurred the expansion of a sci-fi industry spanning movies, video games, books, magazines and exhibits.
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