Court orders death for kindergarten attacker
Source: Agencies/Shanghai Daily |
May 16, 2010, Sunday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
A CHINESE court yesterday sentenced a man to death for a school attack that wounded 29 children and three kindergarten teachers last month.
The attack was one of five major assaults against schoolchildren in the last two months that left 17 dead and more than 50 hurt.
The Taizhou Intermediate People's Court in the eastern province of Jiangsu found Xu Yuyuan guilty of attempted murder.
The 47-year-old unemployed Xu told the court he was venting his anger against society in the April 29 attack. He appealed the death sentence, saying the punishment was too severe considering no one was killed.
A victim's father described Xu as "savage." "It (the punishment) can not be anything other than death!" he said after hearing the sentence.
China has ordered tighter security at schools following another attack on Wednesday, the deadliest so far.
In that rampage, a man broke into a preschool and killed seven children and two adults.
The man was reportedly depressed and suicidal.
The attacks have focused attention on the consequences of ignoring mental illness in modern China, as huge economic inequalities stoke social tensions.
"We are making serious efforts to tackle social tensions, settling disputes and improving local governments' ability to smooth things out," Premier Wen Jiabao told Hong Kong's Phoenix TV late Thursday in the first comments from the country's leadership on the attacks.
An official said on Friday that in future police will open fire on any school attackers.
"If criminals dare to do this kind of thing again, we will act according to criminal law and firearms regulations, and without mercy," a spokesman for the public security ministry, Wu Heping, said.
"Being tolerant of this kind of crazy criminal behavior is a crime and is irresponsible to millions of people."
The man convicted for the first of the five school attacks, Zheng Minsheng, has been executed.
He killed eight children in a knife attack in Fujian Province on March 23.
The attack was one of five major assaults against schoolchildren in the last two months that left 17 dead and more than 50 hurt.
The Taizhou Intermediate People's Court in the eastern province of Jiangsu found Xu Yuyuan guilty of attempted murder.
The 47-year-old unemployed Xu told the court he was venting his anger against society in the April 29 attack. He appealed the death sentence, saying the punishment was too severe considering no one was killed.
A victim's father described Xu as "savage." "It (the punishment) can not be anything other than death!" he said after hearing the sentence.
China has ordered tighter security at schools following another attack on Wednesday, the deadliest so far.
In that rampage, a man broke into a preschool and killed seven children and two adults.
The man was reportedly depressed and suicidal.
The attacks have focused attention on the consequences of ignoring mental illness in modern China, as huge economic inequalities stoke social tensions.
"We are making serious efforts to tackle social tensions, settling disputes and improving local governments' ability to smooth things out," Premier Wen Jiabao told Hong Kong's Phoenix TV late Thursday in the first comments from the country's leadership on the attacks.
An official said on Friday that in future police will open fire on any school attackers.
"If criminals dare to do this kind of thing again, we will act according to criminal law and firearms regulations, and without mercy," a spokesman for the public security ministry, Wu Heping, said.
"Being tolerant of this kind of crazy criminal behavior is a crime and is irresponsible to millions of people."
The man convicted for the first of the five school attacks, Zheng Minsheng, has been executed.
He killed eight children in a knife attack in Fujian Province on March 23.
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