Three Shanghai people executed

Press, 22 June 1989, Page 8

Three Shanghai people executed

NZPA-AP Peking Shanghai authorities yesterday executed three men convicted of setting a train on fire in the first executions stemming from now-quelled student-led protests for a freer society.

The three were shot to death at a public gathering yesterday afternoon, one day after Shanghai’s highest court rejected -their appeals against,the death penalty, a spokesman at the Shanghai Foreign Affairs Office said. The United States and other Western Governments had appealed for clemency for the three and for eight people in Peking also sentenced to death for their roles in the nationwide student protests. Shanghai radio, in announcing the appeals Court’s decision, . said, “There are no legal reasons for mitigating the punishment of Xu Guoming, Bian Hanwu arid Yan Xuerong.”

Xu and Yan, who were workers, and Bian, who was unemployed, set fire to the train on June 6 after it ran through a barricade set up by protesters, killing six people. The three originally were sentenced last Thursday but appealed. “The Higher People’s Court affirmed that the facts verified in the original judgments are clear, the evidence is conclusive and the determination of the crimes and the sentences is not inappropriate,” said the radio report.