THREE SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR XINJIANG RIOTS
Herald Sun / From: AFP / December 05, 2009 1:20AM
A CHINESE court today sentenced three more people to death for their roles in July’s ethnic violence, bringing the total number of those condemned to 17. The court in the regional capital Urumqi also sentenced one other person to life in prison, while three defendants were given varying jail terms for the violence that left nearly 200 dead and over 1,600 injured.
Yesterday, the court handed out death sentences to five others.
Last month nine people previously sentenced to death were executed for their roles in the violence, the worst strife in China in decades.
Violence erupted in the streets of Urumqi back in July when Uighurs, a Muslim minority that has long complained of Chinese repression, attacked members of China’s Han ethnic majority.
In subsequent days, mobs of Han roamed the city’s streets seeking revenge.
The three sentenced to death were found guilty of beating a man to death, injuring three others by repeatedly bludgeoning them with a wooden club and of killing a taxi driver.
The executions and death sentences have drawn criticism from Western governments and rights groups who questioned the fairness of the trials.
“The Chinese government has brazenly ignored all standards of due process of law in a campaign to silence and intimidate the Uighur population through executions and mass detentions,’ Rebiya Kadeer, the Washington-based leader of the World Uighur Congress, said after yesterday’s convictions.
So far 41 people have been tried and sentenced in the unrest.