Chief criminal behind bank bombing sentenced to death

The chief criminal behind last December's bank bombing in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, was sentenced to death Monday.

The Wuhan Municipal Intermediate People's Court gave the sentence to Wang Haijian. It also stripped his political rights for life. The court found Wang guilty of setting off a homemade bomb in front of a branch of the state-owned China Construction Bank in Wuhan on December 1, 2011.

Two of his accomplices, Wang Wei and Wang An'an were given prison terms of 10 years and six years, respectively, for jointly plotting the bank robbery.

The homemade bomb, hidden on a section of pavement in front of the bank, was detonated when clerks were about to load money into a bank vehicle. The explosion killed two people on the spot and incurred financial losses of about 127,000 yuan (US$20,320).