Chinese Court Sentences 6 More To Death Over Xinjiang Riots

 A court in western China's Xinjiang region has sentenced six more people to death over their involvement in bloody ethnic riots in July that killed almost 200 people.

Of the six sentenced Thursday by the Urumqi Intermediate People's Court, five appear to be members of China's mainly Muslim Uighur minority group, based on their names. The other defendant's name, Han Junbo, would seem to place him in China's dominant Han ethnic group.

Han was sentenced for beating a Uighur man to death and injuring another. His accomplice (Liu Bo), also apparently a member of China's majority Han ethnic group, was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

The July violence, China's worst in decades, pitted mainly Muslim minority Uighurs against Han Chinese. More than 1,600 people were injured in the rioting.

In addition to the six death sentences Thursday, three other Uighurs were sentenced to life in prison. Since Monday, China's courts in Xinjiang have sentenced 21 people over their involvement in crimes ranging from murder to arson, robbery and destruction of property.

Xinhua said that of the people sentenced to death on Thursday, three were given a two year reprieve, a sentencing that is typically commuted to life in prison.

The exiled World Uighur Congress has called the trials unfair and warned that the carrying out the death sentences would only aggravate tensions in the region.  

The World Uighur Congress argues that those who have been put on trial in Urumqi have been prevented from choosing their own lawyers, and forced to accept state-appointed counsel.

Chinese officials defend the rulings and say they are impartial.
 
Violence erupted in Urumqi on July 5, after Uighurs held a peaceful protest in Xinjiang against the deaths of two Uighur factory workers. The factory workers died in a brawl with Han Chinese in southern China's Guangdong province.  

Uighurs say the protests turned violent when police cracked down on the rally. Protesters attacked ethnic Han people in the regional capital, and two days later Han Chinese staged revenge attacks.  

Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP.