News has emerged that a murderer was arrested in 2008, 13 years after his crime, when he was discovered to be living a bogus life and had acted as a police assistant under his new identity.

Zhang Xiaoyu, wanted by police in Shangzhi after committing homicide in 1995, was seized thousands of kilometers away in Qinshui, Shanxi Province. He had a different name, Xie Mingfeng, and a job as a sales manager at a coal mine, China Youth Daily reported yesterday.

Zhang, who fled from Shangzhi, Heilongjiang Province, began his new life in when he married a local woman, Liu Fen, in 1999.

Zhang became a police assistant through the influence of his father-in-law Liu Qi.

Liu was the former head of a local supply and marketing cooperative and had ties to local officials, including then deputy police chief of the county Song Jianxin.

Song was disciplined after the seizure of Zhang.

Zhang kept his job as a police assistant until 2001, when he was sacked because of drinking on duty.

Zhang was then recruited by the state-owned Zhongcun coal mine in Qinshui in 2003, but was not a full employee as he had not registered as a local resident yet.

Liu Qi's brother Liu Yuzhu headed the coal mine's trade union and he urged Liu Qi to help Zhang acquire local permanent residence.

Qinshui started a process of urbanization in 2002 and local farmers had to produce official certificates to verify their identification and °?household before becoming urban residents.

The local authority of Xiguan Village in Qinshui's Longgang Town issued a fake certificate saying Zhang was a local farmer with a house in the village.

Zhang then applied for permission to become an urban resident in Qinshui which was approved by both the local police station and the county's public security bureau.

As Zhang couldn't produce his original information, an officer fabricated his personal identification code and from then on Zhang was legal under his new identity until his arrest in July 2008.

Two officers who granted Zhang's application were convicted of abusing their power in October 2008, several others were disciplined.