Published by: THE WORLD UYGHUR NETWORK NEWS, June 11, 1997

Urumqi Xinjiang Television Network, 05/29/97

This morning, the Urumqi City Intermediate People's Court held a

public-sentencing rally at the chief courthouse of the Autonomous

Regional Higher People's Court to pass final verdicts according to law

on 12 convicts involved in the 25 February bus bombings case. Mahmut

Abdurahman and seven other convicts were sentenced to death on such

charges as bomb-planting, murder, and robbery, with their political

rights deprived for life.

[Video opens with a wide shot of the dock of the courthouse, cutting to

show each of the 12 convicts in medium-range shots, with hands cuffed,

legs chained, a rope around the neck, and held in the back by three

guards in military uniform]

After premeditating the plot of launching terrorist bombing acts in

mid-January 1997 in Urumqi City, Mahmut Abdurahman and other convicts

illegally purchased such explosive devices as dynamite and detonators

and incited others to buy other criminal tools, which led to the making

of five time bombs.

On the morning of 25 February, Mahmut Abdurahman gathered his

accomplices together to once again premeditate and agree on the plot of

detonating bombs on buses from 1630 to 1730 Urumqi time of that day.

Eventually, they placed the five time bombs on Routes No. 2, No.3,

No.10, No.44, and No.58 buses respectively, causing explosions of two

buses while traveling along their routes. One of the explosive devices

placed on a bus was discovered by its passengers and exploded after

being thrown out of the bus, while the others placed on two other buses

failed to explode. The consequences of this incident were so serious

that nine people were killed and 58 others injured.

Prior to this, Mahmut Abdurahman and other convicts had committed

violent terrorist acts against innocent people in an extremely

ferocious way. They had killed nine people in succession and

maliciously wounded two others, plundered and stolen huge amounts of

company property, and illegally purchased firearms and ammunition.

Various violent terrorist acts committed by them seriously endangered

the public order of Urumqi, the capital city of Xinjiang, and the

safety of its people's lives and property, and the way in which the

crimes were committed was particularly vile and the consequences were

particularly serious.

After being tried by the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Regional Higher

People's Court in accordance with our country's law and the legal

provision of allowing higher people's courts to ratify some of the

death penalty cases with the Supreme People's Court's authorization,

convicts Mahmut Abdurahman, [Abdulah Moniaji], Abul'ahat Memet, [Usua

Amiti], [Yusufu Ayiti], [Mustafa Lua], [Aily Yuyimu], and Jilil Bilali

were sentenced to death according to law and executed immediately after

the rally.

[as the announcer reads the report, video pans the fully packed

courthouse and occassionally shows closeups of the judge reading

verdicts on the stage; one shot shows approximately a dozen armed

guards seated among the audience]

Convict [Ibahim Tobuti], who committed such particularly serious crimes

as murder and robbery, should have been seriously punished. But since

he had performed major meritorious services by making a clean breast of

his crimes and exposing others' criminal offenses after being placed

under arrest, he was sentenced to death according to law, with a

two-year stay of execution.

The public-sentencing rally also passed final verdicts on three

convicts who had committed murder, robbery, and larceny, and they were

sentenced to life imprisonment or set terms of imprisonment

respectively. [video ends with shots of the convicts being escorted

out of the courthouse]