The growing use of social media by courts is in line with efforts by China's top judicial body to better open up the trial process to the public.

Over the past two years, courts in at least 17 provinces and municipalities experimented with releasing real-time updates via Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like service, during trials.

A recent example was during Bo Xilai's trial, when the court in Jinan, Shandong province, posted details of the ongoing proceedings, although even a county court in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region tested the method with a property dispute.