China hands out death penalty for Uighurs protest

BEIJING — A Chinese court sentenced six men to death and a seventh man to life in prison for their roles in the deadly ethnic rioting that convulsed the western regional capital of Urumqi in July, according to Xinhua, the state news agency.

All seven men appeared to be Uighurs, the largest ethnic group in the vast region of Xinjiang. All were convicted of murder, and some were also found guilty of arson and robbery, Xinhua reported.

The sentences were the first to be handed down by a court in response to the rioting of July 5, in which enraged Uighurs went on a rampage against Han, the dominant ethnic group in China, in the streets of Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang. At least 197 people were killed, most of them Han civilians, and 1,600 injured, the government announced. The ethnic rioting was the worst in decades in China and prompted cycles of retaliation as well as protests against the regional government.

Uighurs in Urumqi said the Chinese government gave severe underestimates of the number of Uighurs killed, while some Han residents say the government is covering up the extent of the atrocities committed by the Uighurs. Last month, as rumors of further violence by Uighurs swirled in Urumqi, large crowds of Han took to the streets to call for the resignation of Wang Lequan, the top official in Xinjiang for 15 years.

Uighurs in Xinjiang have long complained of deeply entrenched discrimination against them by the Han and of mass migrations to Xinjiang by the Han that have changed society in parts of the region they once clearly dominated.

All the men sentenced on Monday have Uighur names. 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. A seventh man, Tayirejan Abulimit, was given a life sentence because he had admitted to committing murder and robbery and assisted authorities in the arrest of Alim Metyusup, Xinhua reported.

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