Officials Detained after Death of Farmer in Property Dispute

(Beijing) – Three local officials have been detained after a farmer who was fighting government efforts to raze his home so a building project could proceed died in a fire at his home in the eastern province of Shandong.

The government-run news website dzwww.com reported on September 17 that Wei Yunbo, a vice director of the rural township of Difang, and two other officials were taken into police custody pending a criminal investigation into death of a farmer named Zhang Jimin, 46.