A local court on Thursday sentenced to death a man who killed 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 Dec. 20 last year in Urumqi, the region's capital, killing two and injuring three others and a teacher.

He was ordered to pay more than 380,000 yuan (48,700 U.S. dollars) 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, police said.

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, police said.

One child died at the scene and another later in hospital, the police said, adding that the victims were aged about nine or ten.

Starting Jan. 1, 2007, the Supreme People's Court (SPC) began 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, a death penalty with immediate execution will be passed down without hesitation," said the SPC spokesman.

Source: Xinhua