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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| China sentences five more to death for Xinjiang riot |
| 2009-12-24 |
| A Chinese court sentenced five more people to death for their part in bloody ethnic rioting earlier this year in Urumqi, the capital of far western Xinjiang region, a local government spokeswoman said on Thursday. The new trial, which was not reported in national Chinese media, brings the number of death sentences for the rioting to at least 22, of which at least nine have already been carried out. "Altogether 22 defendants in five cases went on trial on December 22 and December 23," Hou Hanmin, director of the Xinjiang Government Information Office, told Reuters by phone. Hou would not specify the charges, which she said were published in Xinjiang newspapers. The Internet has been blocked in Xinjiang since July, and local newspaper websites cannot be accessed from outside the region. The intermediate court in Urumqi sentenced another five people to death with a two-year suspension, which is usually commuted to a life sentence, and jailed another eight for life, according to a statement faxed by the spokeswoman. Judging from the names, the ten sentenced to death or the suspended death sentence are all be Uighurs, a Muslim, Turkic-speaking people native to Xinjiang. The statement said the court was shown ample evidence in the open trials, and that more similar trials would follow. |
| Posted by:ryuge |