China executes man who killed nine students in school stabbing
Zhao Zewei had returned to his former school to vent his anger over what he described as the bullying he suffered in childhood
China executed a man on Thursday for killing nine students and wounding 11 others in a knife attack at a school in April, according to a post on a Chinese court’s official social media account.
Zhao Zewei was sentenced to death in July after being charged with homicide for attacking the students near a middle school in Mizhi county, in China’s northwestern province of Shaanxi, on April 27.
After receiving approval from China’s supreme court, the death sentence was carried out in Mizhi county on Thursday, according to the statement from the Yulin City Intermediate Court.
Zhao had said he had taken knives into his former school to vent frustration and anger over his misfortunes in life and the bullying he was subjected to while attending the school, the statement said.
But the motives for the killings were “despicable” and the methods especially cruel, so the supreme court agreed to the use of the death penalty, it cited the court as ruling.
Violent crime is rarer in China than in many other countries, due in part to strict gun controls and tight security in major cities. But recent years have brought a series of knife and axe attacks, including one this year in Beijing.
China does not release official figures for the number of people it executes each year, but rights groups estimate that more people are executed annually in the country than in all other countries combined.
