A high-profile case in which the body of a man was found buried under a school sports ground for more than 16 years in Huaihua, Hunan province, started to be heard at a local court at 9 am on Dec 17.

A total of 14 defendants stood at the trial, including Du Shaoping and Luo Guangzhong, who were accused of killing the man in the schoolyard by prosecutors from Huaihua city, a notice released by the Huaihua Intermediate People’s Court said last week.

Both Du and Luo were charged with the crime of intentional homicide, while Du was also charged with crimes of intentional injury, disturbance of public order, illegal detention, affray and forced transaction, according to the notice.

Crimes that 12 others were charged with included affray, illegal detention and disturbance of public order, it added.

In April, Du was detained in a crackdown on organized crimes and confessed he had killed a man and buried his body under a school’s playground, and the case drew attention from the public on June 20 when police dug up a body buried under the running track at Xinhuang No 1 Middle School.

Through DNA analysis, police confirmed the body was Deng Shiping, a former member of the school’s maintenance staff who was reported missing more than 16 years ago.

According to a statement released by the provincial office against organized crimes, Du illegally obtained the construction project for the school’s playground in 2001 and hired a few people, including Luo, to do the construction. Du and Luo were suspected of killed Deng on Jan 22, 2003, as Du was angry after being questioned by Deng, who was responsible for the quality control of the playground’s construction, the statement said.

To cover up the killing, another 19 officials, including Huang Bingsong, Du’s uncle and also then headmaster of the school, as well as Yang Jun, Du’s former classmate and then deputy head of the public security bureau in Xinhuang county, also got involved in the case by interfering in the investigation, it said.

The officials were punished for their duty-related discipline violations in the case, and 10 of them, including Huang and Yang, were detained for further investigations, it added.

The statement stipulated that Du has been leading a gang of 13 people in other organized criminal activities since 2008, including disturbance of public order, illegal detention and illegal debt collection, but the court’s notice issued last week did not clarify whether the 12 other defendants standing at trial were the gang members.