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Bank bomb perpetrator appeals death sentence

Xinhua, May 22, 2012

• The major offender in an attempted bank robbery in which explosives left two dead and another 15 injured in central China's Hubei province late last year appealed his death sentence to a local court on Monday.

  Wang Haijian (L in front), chief criminal behind last December's bank bombing in Wuhan, was sentenced to death on May 12. Two of his accomplices, Wang Wei (C in front) and Wang An'an (R in front) were given prison terms of 10 years and six years, respectively, for jointly plotting the bank robbery. [Photo/ Xinhua ]

  Wang Haijian was sentenced on May 14 by the Wuhan Municipal Intermediate People's Court for his leading role in setting off a homemade bomb near a branch of state-owned China Construction Bank in Hubei's capital of Wuhan on December 1, 2011.

  Hu Yanmei, Wang's lawyer, was authorized to submit appeal documents to the court, requesting that it reconsider the sentence, which also stripped Wang of his political rights for life.

  Two of Wang Haijian's accomplices, Wang Wei and Wang An'an, were jailed for 10 years and six years, respectively, for their roles in jointly plotting the bank robbery.

  The bomb, hidden on a section of pavement in front of the bank, was detonated when clerks were about to load money into a vehicle. Wang Haijian fled the scene on a motorcycle after the robbery failed.

  The explosion killed a 16-year-old and a 20-year-old, slightly injured 15 others and resulted in financial losses of about 127,000 yuan (US$20,320).

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