China court sentences six Uighurs to death

file photo of July street violence in Urumqi

A Xinjiang Court has sentenced six men to death on October 12 for murder and other crimes committed during July ethnic riots that left nearly 200 dead. A seventh man was given life imprisonment.

The sentences were the first for any of the scores of suspects arrested during the rioting between Muslim Uighurs and members of the Han Chinese majority in the regional capital of Urumqi.

It was China's worst communal violence in decades. Media reports said the verdicts appeared to be aimed at placating Han Chinese who have rallied in Urumqi calling for swift justice.The names of the convicted men appeared to identify them as Uighurs.

Xinjiang has been under heavy security since the unrest, and state TV showed paramilitary troops in riot gear surrounding the court hearing.

The region errupted in violence on July 5 after police broke up a protest by young Uighurs, who were exercised over a deadly brawl between Han and Uighur workers at a toy factory thousands of miles away in southern China.