Four labourers accused of butchering a German businessman and his family go on trial today in Nanjing.
The suspects, aged between 18 and 21, were arrested early on April 2 at the house of motor executive Juergen Pfrang. He, his wife Petra, and their two teenage children were found inside hacked to death. The accused are Zhong Weiyang, Liu Guangyuan, Ding Sanyang and Zhang Eryang, all from the Jiangsu provincial county of Suyang.
The crime, the worst against a foreign family on the mainland in more than 50 years, sent shockwaves through the country's foreign business community.
Government authorities moved quickly to characterise the incident as a botched burglary attempt, but members of the Pfrang family created fresh controversy at the weekend when they told the German press that they believed the murders were assassinations.
Police said the four men arrived at the Jinling Royal Garden, next to Nanjing's Xuanwu Lake, on April 2 to commit a robbery, but they panicked when things went wrong. According to sources familiar with the investigation, the Pfrang parents were awake when three of the men entered the home and a struggle ensued. State media reported that three of the accused had confessed to taking part in the murders.
Shortly after the attack, the German consulate in Shanghai issued a statement supporting the police account. But relatives of Petra Pfrang painted a different picture, saying her husband was preparing to expose financial irregularities at Yaxing Benz Ltd, a US$90 million (HK$700 million) DaimlerChrysler bus manufacturing joint venture in Yangzhou, where the German executive had worked as deputy general manager since May 1997.