China tries local Party boss over Hebei riot: report
BEIJING (Reuters) - China has started the trial of a local Communist Party chief for his role in one of the bloodiest in a wave of rural riots to strike the country in recent years, state media said on Friday.
In June, hired thugs killed six and injured dozens of villagers staging a sit-in on land confiscated by a state-owned power plant to protest against low compensation in Shengyou village in the northern province of Hebei.
"The open trial of the 27 defendants involved in the June 11 case, including former Dingzhou city party secretary He Feng, began yesterday," the Beijing News said. Dingzhou is the city with jurisdiction over Shengyou.
The violence in Shengyou was one of a series of protests in rural China, many of which have focused on land rights as rapid development encroaches on farmland. Corruption and a growing gap between rich and poor have also been flashpoints for unrest.
The government has said China saw some 74,000 protests last year involving 100 or more people.
All 27 in the Dingzhou case were charged with "intentionally inflicting injury upon others," the Beijing News said. If convicted, they could face the death penalty.
Party secretary He Feng was sacked along with the Dingzhou mayor Guo Zhenguang after a Beijing newspaper broke the news of the clash. The report did not say if Guo was also on trial.
Previous reports said police had arrested 31 and detained another 131 at the time. The villagers later won back the land when the government decided not to go ahead with the requisition.
The trial is in keeping with a bid by President Hu Jintao to boost government accountability since taking power in 2003. Among his highest-level dismissals, Hu fired the health minister and Beijing mayor for covering up the SARS virus.
A dozen high level officials have been sacked or have resigned during the period amid public outrage over fatal accidents, corruption or dereliction of duty.
This month, China's environment chief Xie Zhenhua resigned after a petrochemical plant blast which polluted a major river in the country's northeast and forced taps in the city of Harbin to be turned off for four days.
However, Beijing remains virtually silent 10 days after armed police shot and killed at least three villagers in a land dispute similar to Shengyou's in the southern province of Guangdong.
The government said the police commander who gave the order to shoot had been detained. But it also rounded up those involved in the protest and has insisted "instigators" were to blame for the violence. 