CHENGDU: Police have identified the suicide bomber who blew himself up and injured a judge in Guangyuan, the northernmost city in Southwest China's Sichuan Province on Wednesday.

The bombing, which took place on Wednesday morning in an office on the fifth floor of the 12-storey Guangyuan Intermediate People's Court, was masterminded by 59-year-old Xia Yukai, a demobilized soldier, police sources said.

Xia was killed in the explosion, while judge Wang Youqin was injured.

Xia was from the Yangliu Village in the Shizhong District of Guangyuan and returned to his village in 1972 after serving in the military for six years.

Initially, he took charge of security in the village. But in 1981 when the country's household contract responsibility system came in, he bought a truck and began transporting goods with it, accumulating considerable wealth.

In 1988, Xia invested more than 90,000 yuan (US$11,139) to launch a coal mine in his village. He failed to find coal and ended up helping to dig coal in a neighbouring village as a wage-earner.

Soon afterwards, Xia invested less than 10,000 yuan (US$1,238) to start another coal mine in his village. Although he found coal this time, his sales were stagnant.

Xia was transferring the ownership rights of the mine to another entrepreneur, Yang, but a dispute arose between the two. Xia took the matter to the Shizhong District Court of Guangyuan.

Xia was dissatisfied with the court's ruling and escalated the case to the Guangyuan Intermediate People's Court.

The court asked the Shizhong District Court to retry the case, which it did with the same ruling. Xia again took the case to the Guangyuan Intermediate People's Court.

The Guangyuan Intermediate People's Court accepted the Shizhong District Court's ruling.

Xia asked the Guangyuan Intermediate People's Court to retry the case, but judge Wang Youqin declared the ruling final and said Xia could not appeal to a higher court.

Police believe this series of events may have prompted Xia to carry out the suicide bombing.

The police source said that Wang, a senior judge in Guangyuan, is out of danger and the Guangyuan Intermediate People's Court has stepped up security checks of people entering its office building.

(China Daily 04/08/2006 page2)