Four in court on melamine supply charges

Several major figures in the melamine milk scandal appeared in a Hebei court yesterday, two days before the former chairwoman of the Sanlu Group, the dairy firm that set off the scandal, is due to go on trial.

But the court cases have been little help to victims' families struggling to file a lawsuit against the firm.

According to Xinhua, four alleged producers and suppliers of melamine appeared in Shijiazhuang Intermediate People's Court charged with 'endangering public safety'.

The court was told that between November last year and August, Xue Jianzhong , Zhang Yanjun , Gao Junjie and his wife, Xiao Yu , ran a workshop to produce 'protein powder' - a mixture of the industrial chemical melamine, malt dextrin and starch - which they supplied to dairies in at least five Hebei cities through two other defendants being tried separately.

The dairies then allegedly added the protein-boosting melamine mixture to watered-down milk they supplied to the Shijiazhuang-based Sanlu Group.

Melamine is used to make plastics and fertiliser. The four defendants allegedly produced more than 200 tonnes of melamine powder and sold 110 tonnes of it for 1.23 million yuan in total.

The Health Ministry said at least six babies died and 294,000 other children around the country suffered kidney and urinary problems from drinking the tainted baby formula since the scandal was exposed in September.