Former judge charged with homicide, other offenses

Ex-court official presided over high-profile murder trial 16 years ago

A former judge from Yunnan province who presided over a high-profile homicide trial has been charged with several serious offenses including intentional homicide.

Other charges leveled by prosecutors against Dao Wenbing include concealing illicit gains and illegal possession of weapons, according to a judicial decision document recently released online.

The document details were disclosed on China Judgements Online, a website promoted by the Supreme People's Court, in July. It showed that Dao was prosecuted by the Yuxi People's Procuratorate in Yunnan.

The Yunnan High People's Court has named Yuxi Intermediate People's Court to hear Dao's case, according to the document, which gave no further details of the charges.

The disclosure aroused public attention as Dao was a judge at Yunnan's Kunming Intermediate People's Court and 16 years ago presided over the case of a college student executed for multiple homicides.

Ma Jiajue, a biochemistry student from Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, killed four of his classmates in 2004, according to Red Star News, an online news outlet.

The killings were over "trivial squabbles", the report said.

Ma was executed in June 2004, after being sentenced to death for intentional homicide by the court.

Dao was born in Kunming, Yunnan, in 1969, and graduated from the Southwest University of Political Science and Law in 1991, Red Star News reported.