China executes eight for terrorism

BEIJING – Eight people convicted of terrorism, including three accused of masterminding October’s deadly vehicle explosion in Tiananmen Square, have been executed, China’s state-run media said Saturday.

It was not clear when or where the executions were carried out, but they were approved by the supreme court in Xinjiang province, in China’s far northwest, the official New China News Agency reported.

A recent spate of bombings and stabbings have been attributed to separatists among the Uighur population, a mostly Muslim ethnic minority in the region. All eight of those executed appeared to be Uighurs. They had been convicted of offenses that included killing a government official, making explosives illegally and organizing terrorist groups, authorities said.

Huseyin Guxur, Yusup Wherniyas and Yusup Ehmet were put to death for organizing the Oct. 28 attack that killed five people and injured 39 in Tiananmen Square. In that incident, a jeep plowed through a crowd of tourists and erupted in flames in front of the Forbidden City.

Their convictions and death sentences were reported in June.

The others whose executions were announced Saturday had been convicted of offenses in Xinjiang, the news agency said.