A former official who admitted killing his mistress was Tuesday sentenced to death in east China's Zhejiang Province. Xie Zaixing, 48, former chief of the Communist Party of China Committee in Ouhai District, Wenzhou City, was convicted of suffocating Shao Songqiao, a woman with whom he had a nine-year extramarital relationship, after an argument at Shao's home in Hangzhou on Nov 15, 2009. Xie was arrested on April 5 and his case was referred to the city's procuratorate a month later. He was removed from his official post before he was arrested and charged with murder. According to the prosecution, Xie and Shao started their relationship in 2000, when Xie was working in Sanmen county government and Shao was the deputy secretary of the local youth league. Shao and Xie later moved to Hangzhou in 2006, when Shao changed her former name, Shao Huiling, to Shao Songqiao. Xie had pleaded for leniency, saying he had covered Shao's mouth to stop her from screaming and had not intentionally killed her. The sentence was handed down at the Intermediate People's Court of Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang Province. It is not immediately known whether Xie will appeal to a higher court. 