25 June 2012 :

A higher people's court upheld the death penalty for a man convicted of causing a blast that killed two people and injured 15 others in central China's Hubei province.
Wang Haijian, 25, was sentenced to death on May 14 by the Wuhan Municipal Intermediate People's Court after he detonated a homemade bomb in front of a bank in the provincial capital Wuhan in a robbery attempt late last year.
Wang's accomplices Wang Wei and Wang An'an were given jail terms of 10 and six years, respectively, at the intermediate court.
The three appealed their sentences a few days later.
However, the Hubei Provincial Higher People's Court rejected their appeals and upheld the previous sentences.
Wang Haijian began learning to make explosives in October 2010 and later tested his homemade bombs with Wang Wei and Wang An'an. The three had been plotting to rob a bank before Wang Wei and Wang An'an were deterred by the threat of being caught and punished, and they pulled out of the scheme in August 2011.
The bomb went off in front of a China Construction Bank branch on Dec. 1, 2011, when clerks were about to load money into a vehicle. Wang Haijian fled the scene on a motorcycle after the robbery attempt failed.
The blast killed two passersby, left 15 people with minor injuries and resulted in financial losses of about 127,000 yuan (20,320 U.S. dollars).
Wang Haijian's death penalty is still subject to review by the Supreme People's Court.