A man was sentenced to death on Thursday by a local court for the murder of two students in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in revenge for the death of his daughter.

The Urumqi Intermediate People's Court found that Abduhalik Muzht attacked a group of pupils with a sword on December 20 last year in Urumqi, the region's capital, killing two, injuring three others and a teacher.

He was ordered to pay more than 380,000 yuan (US$48,700) to compensate the victims. Muzht appealed to a higher court.

In 2005 Muzht's eight-year-old son, a pupil of a primary school attached to the city's No. 65 Middle School, strangled his elder sister in a furious quarrel because he was "embarrassed" about the girl's poor school results, said police. 

Muzht felt that the school was in some way responsible for the tragedy. He repeatedly asked the school for an "explanation" but received no response.

He attacked the pupils as they were waiting to cross the street right in front of the school, said police. One child died at the scene and another in hospital, the police explained, adding that the victims were aged between nine and ten.

From January 1, 2007 the Supreme People's Court (SPC) started handling all death penalty reviews in an effort to avoid miscarriages of justice. The death penalty will be administered very cautiously in criminal cases involving disputes between families and neighbors, according to the SPC.

"But for extremely notorious criminal cases with overwhelming evidence the death penalty, with immediate execution, will be passed down without hesitation," said the SPC spokesman.

(Xinhua News Agency January 12, 2007)