Man executed for injuring 12 children in Guangxi kindergarten

A man who injured 12 children in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region was executed on Monday after China’s top court approved his death sentence.

Qin Peng’an, a villager in the region’s Pingxiang township, injured the children after he rushed into a kindergarten with a knife at around 3 pm on Jan 4, 2017, the Supreme People’s Court said in a statement. Four of the children received serious injuries.

Qin was sentenced to death for the crime of intentional homicide by the region’s Chongzuo Intermediate People’s Court on Aug 28, 2017. He later lodged an appeal with the regional high people’s court.

The high people’s court upheld the original ruling in December 2017, and then submitted the decision to the country’s top court for review.

Under the Criminal Procedure Law, death penalties handed down by lower-level courts across the nation must be submitted to the SPC for review.

“We reviewed Qin’s case strictly, and the judgment found the man to have committed the crime of intentional homicide and what he did caused serious damage to the children,” the top court said, ruling that Qin had intended to kill the children. “The evidence in the original ruling was sufficient and the law that the lower court applied was accurate.

“Given that the case brought great negative effects to society, we approved the death sentence.”

In November, the SPC approved the execution of two child murderers and two serial rapists after reviewing their death sentences.

At that time, it said children and teenagers are the country’s future and must be given the best protection, adding that it would show zero tolerance by strictly applying capital punishment to offenders who target minors.