Police stand trial over migrant worker's killing

TAIYUAN -- Three police officers have gone on trial for allegedly beating a woman to death after a dispute on a construction site in Taiyuan, capital of north China's Shanxi Province.

The trial started at 9 am in the Intermediate People's Court of Taiyuan, where Wang Wenjun, Guo Tiewei and Ren Haibo were accused of intentional injury and abuse of power.

Paramedics were called to the construction site on December 13, finding the body of 47-year-old Zhou Xiuyun from Zhoukou City in Henan Province.

The case has attracted wide attention after pictures circulated on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo appearing to show Wang grabbing Zhou's hair and stepping on her as she lay on the ground motionless.

Zhou's son, Wang Kuilin, told Xinhua after the pictures' emergence that he and his father had been working at the construction site and that their boss had delayed payment of 29,000 yuan (about 4,700 U.S. dollars) in salary. He said he went with two co-workers to the site to ask for the money but they were prevented from entering by security guards, at which point he phoned his parents and asked them to come to the site.

A brawl began when police arrived, with Guo and Ren also accused at the trial of breaking Zhou's husband's ribs.

The press office of the Taiyuan government told Xinhua in January that the dispute had nothing to do with payment delay, but started when guards stopped the workers as they weren't wearing safety helmets and ID badges.

More than 200 people, including local lawmakers, political advisors and journalists, are present at the trial.

It is expected to last six days. A verdict is due at a later date.

The case has once again cast a shadow over Chinese police officers.

In July, policeman Hu Ping was executed for shooting a pregnant woman dead in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.