Villager takes official to court over ownership of trees

A top district official appeared in court on Thursday to solve a dispute with a resident of Nanshulin village in Beijing's Pinggu district.

The litigant, surnamed Li, filed a lawsuit against the district government after he found that trees his claimed to own had been relocated to another village, according to a statement by Beijing No 4 Intermediate People's Court.

"In 1983, I received a certificate of ownership for the trees in our village from the district government. In 2002, I was told to change the certificate, but the government failed to provide me with a new one," said Li, who declined to give his full name.

"I believe the government illegally relocated the trees to Wangxinzhuang village," Li said during the trial.

Wu Lianjiang, deputy director of the district government, attended the court to respond to the lawsuit.

The certificate Li holds is out of date, "so he cannot claim ownership of the trees anymore", Wu's lawyer said.

The case hearing lasted from 9:30 am to 11:30 am, attracting journalists, law school students and experts in the gallery.

"It's the first time that our court has handled such a dispute," said Cheng Hu, deputy president of the court, who is in charge of the case.

The court's decision is still pending.