Six Sentenced to Death for China Riots

The government says most of the dead were Han Chinese, but the exile activist group the World Uighur Congress claims many Uighurs were also killed. Photo by BGNES

A Chinese court has sentenced six people to death for murder and other crimes during riots in the Xinjiang region in July.

A seventh person received a life sentence, the official Xinhua news agency said, as cited by the BBC.

The riots saw the worst ethnic clashes in China for decades, with nearly 2 000 people injured.

The Xinjiang riots were reportedly sparked by an earlier fight in a toy factory in Guangdong province (on the other side of China) that left two Uighurs dead and 14 others seriously injured.

On Saturday a court in Guangdong sentenced Xiao Jianhua to death and Xu Qiqi to a life sentence for their roles in the factory brawl.

A protest over the Guangdong deaths by the Uighur community in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, erupted in violence on 5 July, leaving at least 197 people killed and another 1 700 injured.

The government says most of the dead were Han Chinese, but the exile activist group the World Uighur Congress claims many Uighurs were also killed.