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Rightful punishment

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-10-14 07:59

No mercy should be shown to criminals who intentionally take other people's lives, loot property and set fire to shops with a view to disrupting social order. So the death sentences given to six criminals for their part in the July 5 murderous riot in Urumqi are delivery of justice that all people with conscience are expecting.

The riot was the most serious and horrible of its kind in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region in the last six decades. Altogether 197 innocent people were killed, more than 1,800 injured, and 380 shops and 169 motor vehicles smashed or burned down.

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Looking at the crimes these criminals have committed, we can hardly understand how they could be so cruel and heartless. Abdukerim Abduwayit, one of the six, stabbed five people to death and burned down a building, which resulted in injuries to several people. Two of the victims were under 18 years. In another case, another of the six criminals set ablaze a grain and oil shop along with others, killing all five of a family, with the eldest victim being 82 years old and youngest just 12.

We don't believe that such criminals will be pardoned in any country with rule of law. Neither do we think that anything other than death penalty can best reflect the will of the general public and the spirit of the rule of law.

It is not easy to investigate the details of a particular case in such a large and complicated riot. But local public security departments and prosecution institutions have been sticking to the principle that there must be strong evidence to incriminate every criminal. More than 1,000 police officers in the city of Urumqi alone and nearly 10,000 more from across the autonomous region have participated in the investigations of the cases, examination of evidence and interrogation of suspects. This speaks volumes to the importance that both the central and local governments attached to the way the cases are handled.

That more than 20 supervisory groups have supervised the entire process of law enforcement such as investigation, interrogation and detention of suspects sends the message that great importance has been attached to strictly following legal procedure in the handling of all cases.

Only when criminals are brought to justice through strict legal procedure can we make sure that right criminals get the right punishment. This principle has obviously been well observed.

Wicked as the criminals are, their rights as defendants are well protected. They have lawyers of their own ethnicity to defend them. They also have the right to defend themselves and the right to provide evidence and every right that a suspect enjoys in court. All the judges and prosecutors are Uygurs since the seven on trial - the remaining one was given life imprisonment, a lesser punishment as he confessed to crimes of murder and robbery, and cooperated with the police - are Uygurs, and Uygur was the language used in the trial. This demonstrates due respect for the rights of those on trial and also how it was made easy for them to exercise their own rights.

We have more to anticipate than just the rightful punishment of the criminals involved in the riot. That is the awareness of more people of all ethnicities that co-existence of all ethnic groups in this country is in the interest of all.

(China Daily 10/14/2009 page8)