13 executed for terrorist attacks
Print Edition
THIRTEEN people were executed yesterday for terrorist attacks and violent crimes in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, as China wages a harsh crackdown against terrorism and violent crimes.
The executions took place on the same day when a Xinjiang court sentenced three other people to death over a suicide attack at Beijing’s Tian’anmen Square in October last year.
The 13 people executed were convicted of crimes such as organizing, leading and participating in terrorist groups, arson, murder, burglary, illegal manufacturing, storage and transporting of explosives, and theft, according to local courts in Aksu, Turpan and Hotan prefectures.
All the death penalties had been approved by the Supreme People’s Court.
The 13 had planned violent terrorist attacks and ruthlessly killed police officers, government officials and civilians, caused huge property losses and seriously endangered public security, the courts said.
In one case, three defendants were convicted of organizing and leading terrorists to attack a police station, hotel, government office building and other venues, killing 24 police officers and civilians and injuring 23 others at Shanshan County’s Lukqun Township in Turpan on June 26 last year.
“The execution of criminals involved in terrorist attacks and violent crimes answers the calls of all ethnic groups, deters criminal activities, and demonstrates the resolve of the Communist Party of China and the government in cracking down on terrorism,” said a spokesman for the Xinjiang regional higher people’s court.
He said judicial organs will continue to punish terrorists and criminals, defend the dignity of the law, and safeguard fairness, justice, social harmony and stability.
Also yesterday, three people were sentenced to death over the suicide car crash at Beijing’s Tian’anmen Square last October.
One other person was given life in prison for the terrorist attack while four others received jail terms ranging from five to 20 years, the Intermediate People’s Court in Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital, said.
Husanjan Wuxur, Yusup Umarniyaz and Yusup Ahmat were sentenced to death for organizing and leading a terrorist group and endangering public security.
Gulnar Tuhtiniyaz and Bujanat Abdukadir were sentenced to life and 20 years for taking part in a terrorist group and endangering public security.
Tohti Mehmat, Tursunjan Abliz and Abla Niyaz were given jail terms of five to 10 years for taking part in a terrorist group.
The court said Wuxur, Umarniyaz, Ahmat and Usmen Hasan began to recruit members in 2011 to form a terrorist group and carry out terrorist activities.
From December 2012 to September 2013, the four looked for guns and explosives, watched terrorism videos and planned terrorist acts including the attack in Beijing.
On October 7 last year, four men, including Wuxur and Ahmat, arrived in Beijing in a vehicle, together with Hasan, his wife Gulkiz Gheni and his mother Kuwanhan Reyim. Umarniyaz arrived in Beijing later to join them, the court said.
They raised money to buy a car, gasoline, knives and gas masks and visited Tian’anmen Square several times to gather information.
At noon on October 28, Hasan, Gheni and Reyim drove a jeep into a crowd of people near Tian’anmen Square, killing three people and injuring 39 others. The three suspects died at the scene.
In court, security camera video of the attack was broadcast for the first time, showing a white SUV turning onto a pavement at high speed and barrelling into crowds of pedestrians, who scattered before it.
Prosecutors also displayed several weapons, including a large sword.
The incident was one of several violent attacks launched by separatists from Xinjiang that have rocked China in recent months.
In March a horrific knife assault at a railway station in the southern city of Kunming left 29 people dead and 143 others injured.
Last month, 39 people were killed, along with four attackers, and more than 90 others were wounded when terrorists threw explosives and plowed two off-road vehicles through a crowd at a market in Urumqi.
On June 5, local courts in Xinjiang sentenced nine people to death, gave three suspended death sentences and 69 others life and fixed-term imprisonment for the crimes of organizing, leading or participating in terrorist organizations, murder and arson.
The sentences were part of a crackdown after the country launched a year-long “strike hard” campaign against terrorism in the wake of the Urumqi market attack.
Authorities in Xinjiang also sentenced 55 people for offenses including terrorism at a mass sentencing in May.
The crackdown includes efforts to curb the spread of violent and terror-related video and audio recordings, and led to the detention of more than 200 people.
Overseas-based terror groups including the Turkestan Islamic Party and East Turkestan Islamic Movement, influenced by al-Qaida, are said to have inspired and even orchestrated violence in China from Central Asia, which borders Xinjiang.
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