CHINA. OFFICIAL GETS DEATH FOR KILLING NAGGING MISTRESS

Guan Canrong a former official in China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region was sentenced to death in the contract killing of his nagging mistress who pestered him to divorce his wife and marry her. The hitman, Li Yuhua, was also sentenced to death in Zhaoping County, the Supreme People's Court reported on its Website. Two others got life imprisonment for their roles in the contract killing. The four were ordered to pay more than 206,000 yuan (US$25,625) in compensation to the victim's daughter. Guan, 51, then head of Zhaoping County's Grain Bureau, had an extramarital affair for many years with the victim Wang Shiying. From 2004, Wang began pressing Guan to divorce his wife and marry her. She persistently telephoned him about divorce, whether Guan was home or at work, and threatened to expose the affair. In July 2005, Guan reportedly asked his driver, Huang Shilin, to find a contract killer. Huang asked his cousin Mo Xiongyao to help find a hitman. Guan paid Mo an advance of 10,000 yuan and promised another 140,000 yuan after the murder. Mo then plotted the murder with Li, an ex-convict. On September 4, Mo lured Wang into a minivan, and Li hit her head with a wooden club, killing her instantly. They used a wire to tie the body to a stone and dump it into a suburban river. The following day, Guan gave Huang 145,000 yuan, which included an extra 5,000 yuan for cleaning the blood from the minivan.