A Chinese lawmaker has been arrested in connection with the
murder of his mistress with a car bomb earlier this month.
Duan Yihe, chairman of the Standing Committee of the Jinan
Municipal People's Congress, is alleged to have hired his
nephew-in-law, a Jinan policeman, to plant the car bomb that killed
Liu Haiping on July 9, according to a source with the Shandong
Provincial Public Security Department.
Police found remnants of the bomb in Liu's car after the blast,
which killed her on the spot.
Duan, 61, a deputy to the current tenth National People's
Congress - China's top legislature - began an intimate relationship
with Liu, 30 years his younger, in 1993 when she worked at a local
hotel, he admitted to the police.
With Duan's help, Liu secured employment in the Jinan Financial
Bureau and then the Municipal Bureau of State Land and Resources.
Her two sisters also secured more high-paying jobs.
An investigation revealed that Liu, who owns three houses, has
more than 2 million yuan (more than US$263,000) in personal assets.
But the source of the properties is still unclear.
Duan had been trying to split up with Liu since 1999 due to what
he termed as "conflicts" in their relationship, but Liu
refused.
Duan told police he had just wanted to arrange a traffic
accident with the help of his nephew-in-law Chen Zhi, an officer
with the Jinan Municipal Public Security Bureau, so that Liu would
"lose her ability to think".
On July 9, Chen planted explosives in Liu's car and set off the
blast by remote control when Liu was driving. Chen has been
detained.
Witnesses said pieces of Liu's body were lying on the road and
her car was wrecked. A taxi, which crashed into Liu's car, was
engulfed in flames, but the driver survived the explosion with some
injuries.
On Monday, Duan was stripped of his membership of the national
legislature at a conference of the Standing Committee of the
Shandong Provincial People's Congress.
He has also been expelled from the Communist Party of China and
removed from Party posts.
Duan, who has been working in the CPC's organization departments
at county, municipal and provincial levels since 1976, was promoted
to chairman of the Standing Committee of the Jinan municipal
legislature in 2001.
The exposure of Duan's case comes in the wake of news that 95
Party officials in north China's Shanxi Province had been punished
for their involvement in the forced labor scandal at local brick
kilns.
(Xinhua News Agency July 17, 2007)