On 19 January 2016, Mr. Hu Jiabing of Fengxin county, Jiangxi province, deliberately drove his car into school children who were on their way to school, subsequently killing four people and injuring 18 others.
Most of the people who died in the attack were students. Hu was arrested at the scene of the crime and taken into custody, where on 23 August he was sentenced to death.
In keeping with article 1.19 of the Public Security Act, the Fengxin Publicity Department released on its WeChat account that Hu had been executed on 11 July this year, after approval came through from the Supreme People’s Court.
Hu was convicted of endangering public security by dangerous means. In addition to the death penalty, Hu was also ordered to pay civil compensation to the families of six of the victims.
With the exact number of executions taking place in China a “state secret”, it is impossible to know exactly how many death penalty sentences come to term. An estimate is often put at more than 2,000 per year.
