At 5.30pm on July 9, a powerful explosion tore a cruising Honda Fit car into pieces on one of the main streets in Jinan, the capital of Shandong province .
The 31-year-old female driver, Liu Haiping , died instantly as the blast cut her body into pieces with only her upper torso and head intact. The blast also wounded a taxi driver and one passer-by.
Police rushed to the scene and quickly established that Liu was a civil servant working for the city's bureau of land resources because of the car licence plate - a special one issued by the city's police to the city's top officials and their relatives.
Using the clues provided by the plate, the police forced their way into Liu's home and found photos of her posing intimately with Duan Yihe , 61, chairman of Jinan's Municipal People's Congress. It was later established that Liu had been Duan's mistress since 2000 and their affair had been an open secret among many city officials.
On the night of July 11, police arrested the main culprit suspected of planting the bomb under Liu's car seat - Chen Zhi , a senior policeman in Jinan, who married Duan's niece.
Chen testified that Duan had ordered the hit, and Duan was arrested soon afterwards, with the announcement of his arrest officially made on July 16. According to official media reports, Duan wanted Liu dead because she kept asking for more money although he already bought several homes for her and found cushy government jobs for her relatives.
