Four charged over 'China's 9/11' knife attack
AFP
June 30, 2014, 9:55 pm
Beijing (AFP) - China on Monday charged four people over a deadly railway station knife attack that killed 29 people and was blamed on separatists from Xinjiang, the homeland of mainly Muslim Uighurs.
The four are among eight assailants whom authorities say carried out the attack in the southwestern city of Kunming in March, which also left 143 injured and was dubbed "China's 9/11" by domestic media.
The remaining four attackers were shot dead by police at the time.
The four defendants were responsible for "organising, planning, and carrying out the violent terrorist murder at Kunming railway station," a statement posted on the website of China's public prosecutor said Monday.
"The criminal facts are clear, the evidence is abundant," the Supreme People's Procuratorate statement added.
No date was given for a trial.
China's courts have a near-100 percent conviction rate and the death penalty is regularly handed down in terrorism cases.
Beijing has vowed a year-long crackdown on terrorism in recent weeks following several high-profile attacks blamed on militants from Xinjiang, which since late last year have spread outside the region and targeted ordinary citizens rather than government or security personnel.
