With the help of two witnesses and surveillance video, police arrested three men in early September following the attack on Fang Xuanchang.

The three confessed that Xiao, head of the Urology Department of Wuhan Union Hospital, hired them to carry out the attack.

Xiao was arrested at Shanghai Pudong Airport on September 21.

Xiao confessed to the police that revenge was the motive for the attacks, as he believed that Fang Zhouzi and Fang Xuanchang's exposure of his academic frauds made him fail in his bid to become a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Xiao said he hired Dai Jianxiang, 45, and Dai arranged for two younger men, Long Guangxing, 31, and Xu Lichun, 32, to commit the attacks.

Fang Zhouzi was born in Fujian Province in 1967. He is well known for exposing bogus research and academic fraud in China, including the latest cases of Li Yi, a Taoist priest in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, and Jun Tang, former CEO of Microsoft Greater China Region.