The trial of Ma Jiajue, a fourth-year Yunnan University student
who allegedly killed four of his schoolmates in February, began
yesterday at the Kunming Intermediate People’s Court in southwest
China’s Yunnan Province. The court did not render a verdict
yesterday.
The youth of the defendant and the victims in the case has drawn
nationwide attention. Experts and laymen alike are trying to
understand how a college student could bludgeon his schoolmates to
death.
Ma’s parents and the families of the four victims have all
arrived in Kunming, the provincial capital.
One victim’s parents said they would give up demands for
compensation, but parents of the other three victims have asked for
820,000 yuan (US$99,000).
The four victims were found in a dormitory in Yunnan University
on February 23, all with injuries consistent with a blunt metal
object. Ma, who is from a poor family in the Guangxi Zhuang
Autonomous Region, was later listed as the chief suspect.
He was finally captured on March 15 in Sanya, south China’s
Hainan Province.
(China Daily April 23, 2004)