Four more people in China's tainted dairy scandal went on trial Monday in a local court in Shijiazhuang, capital of northern Hebei Province.

The Shijiazhuang Intermediate People's Court began the hearing for Gao Junjie, Xue Jianzhong and two others at 8 a.m.. The charges are not currently available.

On Friday, six people involved in the scandal stood trial in four courts in Hebei on charges of producing, selling or adding protein powder that contained melamine to raw milk. The courts have not announced the verdicts.

Tian Wenhua, Sanlu's former board chairwoman and general manager, will go on trial Wednesday in the Shijiazhuang Intermediate People's Court.

Shijiazhuang-based Sanlu Group stopped production on Sept. 12. A bankruptcy petition for Sanlu has been filed as it faced 1.1 billion yuan (US$160.7 million) of debt, the city government said Thursday.

The Ministry of Health has said it was likely the contamination killed six babies. Another 294,000 infants suffered from urinary problems such as kidney stones.

(Xinhua News Agency December 29, 2008)