The Intermediate People's Court of Wenzhou City, east China's Zhejiang Province, began a trial Wednesday on the murder of local billionaire Zhou Zubao.

Wang Weijian, also a billionaire of Wenzhou, and six others were charged by the municipal procuratorate with intentional homicide.

The local procuratorate said Zhou planned to open a supermarket with Wang and another Wenzhou resident Tu Jin'an in Beijing's Fengtai District in March 1998.

However, conflicts emerged during the preparations, and Wang and Tu wanted to quit from the project and get back the 1.9 million yuan (US$229,746) they had already invested, but Zhou refused.

In December of that year, Wang and Tu pretended to transfer their shares of the supermarket to Yang Jinfu and asked Yang to extort the sum of money from Zhou, and promised Yang would be well paid if the money was drawn back, according to their agreement.

Failing to get the money back, Yang gathered together a band of rogues in November 1999 who attempted to control the supermarket by force so that Zhou would pay the money back to Wang and Tu.

Zhou Jianbo, vice-manager of the market, and nephew of Zhou Zubao, was killed in the conflict, and Yang escaped from the locale.

Wang and Tu had paid Yang and his men over 300,000 yuan (US$36,276) after the incident and the three decided to kill Zhou Zubao in November 2002 since Zhou had demanded many times that the local police deal with the homicide case of his nephew.

Yang, who was promised 500,000 yuan (US$60,459) for the killing, stabbed Zhou to death on Feb. 12, 2003 in collusion with Zhu Zhijin and Yu Cunjun from west China's Shaanxi Province.

The procuratorate said Wang, Tu and Yang should be held criminal responsibility for the two homicides.

Many relatives and friends of the defendants came to hear the court and the court says they will wrap up the case in two days.

(Xinhua News Agency May 19, 2004)