This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

China has executed eight people for “terrorist attacks”, including three people it described as masterminding a suicide car crash in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 2013, state media has announced.



The official Xinhua news agency said the eight were involved in several cases connected to the north-western region of Xinjiang, where Beijing says separatist militants are behind a string of attacks that have rocked China in recent months.

Three of the condemned, named by Xinhua as Huseyin Guxur, Yusup Wherniyas and Yusup Ehmet, were “deprived of political rights to life” for their role in the assault in Tiananmen Square in October.

Two tourists were killed in the attack in which a car rammed into bystanders on the square in central Beijing and burst into flames.

Three attackers also died in the incident, which Beijing blamed on Xinjiang separatists.

Xinhua said five others were executed, including Rozi Eziz, who was convicted of an attack on police in Aksu in 2013.

Abdusalam Elim was executed on charges of “organising and leading a terrorist organisation”, Memet Tohtiyusup had “watched audio-visual materials on religious extremism” and “killed an innocent civilian” in 2013, and Abdumomin Imin was described as a “terrorist ringleader” who led Bilal Berdi in attacks on police in 2011 and 2013.

Xinhua, which cited the Xinjiang region publicity department in its report, did not say when the executions were carried out.

The Tiananmen attack was one of several that have rocked China since last year, and which Beijing has blamed on Xinjiang separatists.



The far-western region is the resource-rich homeland of the Uighurs and other groups, and periodically sees ethnic tensions and discontent with the government burst into violence.

In March a knife assault at a railway station in the southern city of Kunming left 29 dead and 143 wounded.

Two months later 39 people were killed, along with four attackers, and more than 90 wounded when assailants threw explosives and ploughed two off-road vehicles through a crowd at an Urumqi market.

Chinese courts, which are controlled by the ruling Communist party and have an almost 100% conviction rate, frequently impose death sentences for terror offences.

Beijing vowed a year-long campaign against terrorism in the wake of the Urumqi market attack. In June 13 people were executed for Xinjiang-linked terrorist attacks.

Exile groups say cultural oppression and intrusive security measures imposed by the Chinese government are the main causes of tension, along with immigration by China’s Han ethnic majority, which they say has led to decades of discrimination and economic inequality.



Beijing, however, stresses ethnic harmony in Xinjiang and says the government has helped improve living standards and developed the economy.