Chinese Court Doles Out More Death Sentences to Uighurs

A Chinese court on Thursday (October 15) handed out more death sentences to people convicted of violent crimes during July’s deadly riots in Xinjiang.

The state-run Xinhua news agency reported that a court in Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital, convicted a total of six people—three received death sentences, and three others got suspended death sentences, which could be commuted to life sentences in two years.

The Xinhua report did not specify the ethnic identity of all six defendants, but their names left little doubt that they’re Uighurs, a Turkic ethnic group native to the region.

An additional six Uighurs were already sentenced to death earlier this week.

Last month, China announced the first charges in connection with the unrest. 21 people were charged with murder, arson, robbery and damaging property during ethnic riots that erupted on July 5. The violence eventually killed hundreds of people, but Uighur groups say Chinese police were largely responsible for escalating the conflict.

Decades of cultural and religious oppression in the region has fueled anger at the ruling Communist Party. The Party’s policy of moving Han Chinese–the majority ethnic group–westward to the oil-rich region has also led to ethnic tension.

(NTDTV)