China Charges 4 Suspects in Train Station Massacre That Killed 28
China has charged four people in connection with the March terror attack at a train station in Kunming where 29 people were killed and 140 injured in a brutal stabbing attack.
The Xinhua state media station reported Monday that the four suspects had been charged with leading the March 1 terror attack in the public train station. "The Kunming Municipal People's Procuratorate found that the suspects were involved in organizing, leading or taking part in the terrorist attack as well as intentional homicide," the news agency reported, citing the prosecutor in the case.
"The crimes of the four defendants are clear and the evidence is abundant," the prosecutor added.
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When the attack took place in March, reports indicated that eight suspects used curved swords and meat cleavers to randomly slash civilians in the evening as they waited to catch trains at the local Kunming station in Yunnan. Four of the suspects were shot at the scene, and one female suspect was arrested. Days later, three male suspects were also detained in connection to the attack.
The female was charged with intentional homicide and taking part in a terrorist group, while the three men were charged with intentional homicide and leading a terrorist group.
At the time of the terrorist massacre, government officials blamed the carnage on militant Uighurs, an ethnic Islamic group originating from Turkey. Militant members of the Islamic group are seeking independence from the state of Xinjiang.
As Reuters points out, the four suspects charged with the train station massacre will likely be found guilty, as China's ruling Communist Party controls the courts and those accused of crimes rarely receive a fair trial. Although the Xinhua state media station did not reveal the ethnicities of the four suspects charged in the March attack, their names are reportedly of Uighur origin.
Some of family members of victims from the March attack have said they are pleased with Monday's charges against the four suspects. "I hope they get the death sentence, because they killed so many innocent people," Li Jinmei, the 32-year-old wife of a man who was badly injured when he shielded his daughter from the attackers, told USA Today.
In addition to Monday's charges, 113 people recently received jail sentences ranging from 10 years to life imprisonment on charges ranging from indicting ethnic hatred and involvement in terrorist organizations. The charges were made in the country's majority Uighur province of Kashgar last Wednesday, and those arrested had Uighur names.
Along with the fatal March stabbing in Kunming, there have been other recent terror attacks in the Asian country, including a string of knife attacks at multiple train stations, located mostly in the country's restive western area.
