Eight people were executed in Urumqi yesterday after the Xinjiang Higher People's Court upheld death sentences handed down by a lower court.
Xinjiang's Higher People's Court announced that Mahmut Abdurahman, Jilil Bilali and six others were sentenced to death for committing violent crimes which left 18 people dead and 60 injured, Xinhua (the New China News Agency) said.
The court sentenced four other accomplices to jail terms.
The city's Intermediate Court issued the verdicts on May 16, saying the 12-member gang had placed homemade explosives on public buses in the city on February 25.
Three devices exploded, killing nine passengers and injuring 58.
Court investigations revealed that Mahmut Abdurahman and other members of the gang also robbed local taxi drivers, shop owners, residents and pedestrians with knives and guns on eight occasions from December 18, 1996, to February 20 this year.
