The attack and the victims
On the evening of March 1, 2014, a group attacked people at Kunming Railway Station in Yunnan. The Supreme People's Court's later summary of the case records 31 people killed and 141 injured, including 40 people described as seriously injured.
Police confronted the attackers at the station. Several attackers died at the scene, while one woman was injured and captured. The later prosecution also included defendants accused of organizing the group before the station attack.
Investigation and prosecution
Authorities opened a terrorism and homicide investigation and prosecuted four defendants: Iskandar Ehet, Turgun Tohtunyaz, Hasayn Muhammad and Patigul Tohti. The prosecution's case did not assign identical roles to all four, and the final sentences reflected those differences.
According to the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the defendants were prosecuted for offenses including organizing and leading a terrorist organization, participation in a terrorist organization and intentional homicide. Crime by Region uses those legal labels as findings of the Chinese courts rather than as a basis for broader claims about communities or political identities.
Trial and sentences
On September 12, 2014, the Kunming Intermediate People's Court sentenced Iskandar Ehet, Turgun Tohtunyaz and Hasayn Muhammad to death and Patigul Tohti to life imprisonment. The first three were convicted of organizing or leading a terrorist organization and intentional homicide; Tohti received a different judgment based on her adjudicated role.
The defendants appealed. On October 31, 2014, the Yunnan High People's Court upheld the three death sentences and the life sentence.
Supreme People's Court review
Because death sentences require further judicial review, the cases went to the Supreme People's Court. The Court approved the three death sentences. On March 24, 2015, the Kunming Intermediate People's Court announced that the executions had been carried out following the Supreme People's Court's approval.
The life sentence imposed on Patigul Tohti remained distinct from the capital sentences. This page therefore does not flatten the four defendants into a single legal outcome.
What is legally established
The attack's death toll, the large number of injured victims and the four defendants' criminal judgments are documented in official court and procuratorate records. The appellate and sentence-review process also reached definitive outcomes for the sentences described above.
For that reason, the file is classified as Solved / Adjudicated. The classification refers to the criminal cases that reached judgment; it does not imply that every historical or political question surrounding the attack was judicially resolved.
Timeline
March 1, 2014: the attack at Kunming Railway Station kills 31 people and injures 141.
June 2014: prosecutors announce the indictment of four defendants.
September 12, 2014: the Kunming Intermediate People's Court imposes three death sentences and one life sentence.
October 31, 2014: the Yunnan High People's Court upholds the judgments on appeal.
March 24, 2015: after Supreme People's Court review and approval, the three death sentences are carried out.
Current status
The convictions and final sentences described above remain the documented adjudicated outcome located for this case. No later judicial decision overturning those judgments was found in this review.
Sources
- Supreme People's Court — typical terrorism case summary including the Kunming station case
- Supreme People's Court — Yunnan High People's Court upholds Kunming attack judgments, October 31, 2014
- Supreme People's Procuratorate — prosecution of Kunming attack defendants, June 2014
- Xinhua — executions after Supreme People's Court approval, March 24, 2015