CHINA: TWO EXECUTIONS FOR MURDER AND SPYING

September 10, 2008: China has executed two men. Abduhalik Muzht, 39, convicted of fatally cutting two children with a knife in December 2006, was executed on September 4.
According to the Higher People's Court, Muzht was seeking revenge on the school for the death of his daughter. In 2005, Muzht's son, a pupil of a primary school attached to the city's No.65 Middle School, strangled his elder sister because he was embarrassed by her poor grades. Muzht blamed the school for not intervening or taking any responsibility for his daughter's death. One year later, he attacked children on their way to school, in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Three other students and a teacher were injured in the attack. Muzht appealed to the higher court after the Intermediate People's Court of Urumqi, the region's capital, sentenced him to death in 2007.
On September 8, a Chinese People's Liberation Army (P.L.A) officer was executed after a military court found him guilty of selling classified documents to Taiwan, a Hong Kong newspaper reported. The pro-Beijing daily Ta Kung Pao said Lt. Dai Yibiao, 33, contacted a Taiwanese spy through the Internet in April 2006 and in November of that year sent the agent 116 classified electronic documents over the Internet. Dai was said to have received 82,160 yuan (about US$12,000) for the documents, the report said. The Nanjing Military Court ruled that Dai's behavior constituted espionage and sentenced him to death. Dai's appeal at the P.L.A. military court failed and he was executed, the report said. (Sources: NDTV.com, 08/09/2008; Shanghai Daily, 10/09/2008)