Duan Yihe, 61, former chairman of the Standing Committee of the Municipal
People's Congress of Jinan, capital of Shandong Province in East China, was
convicted of murder, along with policeman Chen Zhi, also his nephew-in-law, in
July.
Duan was also convicted guilty for taking bribes and asking for money with a
total value of 1.69 million yuan (US$223,800). He was also unable to explain
the sources of another 1.3 million yuan (US$176,000) in assets, which was
beyond his reasonable income level, according to the country's Supreme People's
Court, which approved the execution.
Another accomplice Chen Changbing, boss of a local car repair plant, was
sentenced to life in prison for helping Chen Zhi to plant the bomb in the car
of Liu Haiping, Duan's mistress.
The three defendants appealed against the original verdicts but China's supreme
court upheld the original sentences, saying the car bombing crime was extremely
brutal and had seriously harmed society.
Duan, 61, had maintained an intimate relationship with Liu, a divorced woman 30
years his junior, since 2000, buying her a house and arranging jobs for many of
her relatives.
However, he later longed to end the relationship after gradually growing tired
of Liu, who repeatedly asked for money, demanded he divorce his wife to marry
her and even threatened to report him to the prosecuting authorities.
Duan concocted a plan with his nephew-in-law to cause a traffic accident in
order to make her "lose her ability to think", the court heard. Duan claimed it
was Chen's error that killed Liu.
At around 5:00 pm on July 9, Chen Zhi and Chen Changbing planted a homemade
bomb in Liu's car and detonated the device 30 minutes later by remote control
as she was driving. Liu died instantly and two passersby were injured.
Duan was arrested on July 16. He was expelled from the Communist Party and
removed from Party posts soon after the case was exposed.
