(LM: What struck me about this article was not that it was a particularly gruesome murder committed by a government official involved in a sex scandal--although it was that--but that the murder, the confession and the execution all occurred in less than two months. The average stay on death row in the US is about 10 years.
You might fault the Chinese for their poisonous toothpaste, defective tires, toys painted with lead-based paint and dog-killing dog food, or for their hacking into US and UK government computers, but damn it, you have to admit that they know how to do an efficient execution. Really cuts down the time and money spent on appeals.)Leader who blew up mistress is executedA senior Chinese parliamentarian who blew up his young mistress to silence her demands for money and marriage was executed yesterday, along with his policeman nephew, who helped him to murder the woman.
Duan Yihe, 61, was the latest victim of a crackdown on Communist officials’ corruption and extramarital affairs. Last week the Finance Minister, Jin Renqing, was demoted to a post in a government think-tank amid rumours of a sex scandal.
Mr Duan was a former chairman of the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress, or parliament, of Jinan, the capital of eastern Shandong province. He had admitted asking his nephew, Chen Zhi, a Jinan policeman, to help him to arrange a road accident to eliminate the young woman, Liu Haiping.
Mr Chen and the head of a car repair shop planted explosives in Miss Liu’s car. They detonated the bomb by remote control as she drove down a busy road in Jinan on July 9. The blast was so powerful that her Honda sedan was ripped apart, her lower body was destroyed and her torso landed 30 metres away. Two bystanders were injured.
<snip>
(Link:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2395271.ece)