Twelve villagers who planted crops on requisitioned land that had been left idle for more than a decade stood trial on charges of "blackmailing the local government and real estate developers" in Heping county, Guangdong province, on Tuesday.

The defendants, including five women and three seniors (older than 60 years), who are from Shuibei village in Longchuan county, have been in detention for more than 10 months.

The police detained the 12 accused on May 19 last year after they allegedly blocked a road to prevent developers from starting construction on the long unused farmland.

In the indictment, public prosecutors said the defendants had "committed the crime of extortion" for planting crops on requisitioned land in order to ask for compensation.

The accused, who were brought to court in handcuffs and shackles, admitted they had asked developers for compensation totaling 300,000 yuan ($43,950) to take over the land, adding they only planted peanuts, potatoes and bananas in accordance with the country's laws and regulations.

"We have put in a lot of years of hard work planting crops on land that was otherwise unutilized, but now we face the possibility of going to jail for it," said Huang Zhongqiang, one of the accused.

The court did not deliver a verdict on Tuesday.

Yuan Shaomin, the defense attorney, said there are no legal grounds to convict the accused, who should be acquitted.

Yuan said the land on which his clients planted crops was requisitioned in the 1990s and had been left unused for more than 10 years.

"The State encourages farmers to plant crops on idle land," Yuan said.

According to Article 37 of China's Land Administration Law, no unit or individual is allowed to let land lie idle or go to waste. If construction work fails to start for two successive years, the governments at and above the county level shall revoke the right to use the land. If the land used to be owned by farming collectives, it should be returned to the original collective for recultivation.

"Why were the defendants brought to court with such grave charges when all they did was plant crops on farmland that had been idle for years?" Yuan asked.

"The real law breakers are the developers, or the local government, because they failed to develop the requisitioned farmland for so long," he added.

More than 100 residents of Shuibei village traveled about 100 km to Heping county to attend the trial on Tuesday, but only those who could show their identity cards were allowed to enter the court.

Dozens of police officers stood guard at the court during the trial to prevent a mass incident from taking place.

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