The FINANCIAL — A Chinese court sentenced six people to death for their involvement in a riot in the far northwestern region of Xinjiang, which left nearly 200 people dead and more than 1,600 others injured. A seventh person, found guilty of rioting was sentenced to life in prison because he helped the police arrest other suspects.
The sentences were the first for any of the scores of suspects arrested in the July rioting between Muslim Uighurs and members of the Han Chinese majority in the regional capital of Urumqi, AP reported. It was China's worst communal violence in decades.
The verdicts appeared aimed at placating Han Chinese who have rallied in Urumqi calling for swift justice. An overseas Uighur activist, however, said they were only likely to exacerbate the ethnic tensions, according to the same source. Xinjiang has been under heavy security since the strife, and state TV showed paramilitary troops in riot gear surrounding the courthouse Monday.
The convicts – all of whom have names suggesting they are from the Uighur ethnic minority – were found guilty of murder, arson and robbery during the riots Guardian informs. The sentencing – announced by the state-run China Central Television – appeared to be aimed at mollifying the anger of the Han Chinese majority, many of whom rallied in the regional capital of Urumqi last month to call for swift retribution.
But overseas Uighur groups warned that the harsh punishments and lack of due legal process could further inflame tensions, according to the same source. Fears of new unrest prompted the authorities to step up security in Urumqi ahead of the sentencing.
The six sentenced to death by the Intermediate People’s Court in Urumqi were Abdukerim Abduwayit, Gheni Yusup, Abdulla Mettohti, Adil Rozi, Nureli Wuxiu’er and Alim Metyusup, according to Xinhua News Agency. A seventh man, Tayirejan Abulimit, was given a life sentence because he had confessed to murder and robbery and helped in the arrest of Alim Metyusup, Xinhua reported.
Abduwayit was convicted of beating five people to death and an arson attack on a building, Guardian informs. Four other men were convicted of fatal assaults on four bystanders. The sixth man who faces execution set fire to a shop, killing five people inside.
The sentences in Urumqi were handed down just two days after two courts in southern China sentenced 11 people for their roles in the ethnic melee at a toy factory that served as a spark of the Xinjiang rioting, The New York Times wrote. Xiao Jianhua, a Han man identified by a court as the “principal instigator” of that brawl, was received a death sentence, another man received life in prison and nine others were given shorter prison terms.
The fight took place after talk spread among Han workers at the factory that Uighur workers had raped a Han woman. Photographs and video of the brawl were quickly posted on the Internet, and Uighurs in Xinjiang became outraged over what they said was the government’s refusal to mete out proper justice, according to the same source. On July 5, Uighurs gathered in a central square in Urumqi to call for a proper government investigation into the factory deaths. Those protesters clashed with riot police officers, and then the ethnic rioting that led to the deaths of scores of civilians broke out.
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