More death sentences
have been doled out to beleaguered Uighurs caught up in violence in the troubled province of Xinjiang. Three men where sentenced to death following an attack in June than left 24 police and civilians dead.
The official Xinhua News Agency said Friday that another man was sentenced to 25 years in prison for his role in the June 26 violence, in which 13 militants were also killed. All four were found guilty of murder and being members of a terrorist organization and sentenced Thursday by the intermediate court in the city of Turfan at the end of a one-day trial.
The Chinese central government has repeatedly claimed that Islamic extremists are orchestrating the attacks from overseas, where a number of Xinjiang indepdence terrorist organisations are training and funding terrorist attacks in the region. Actual evidence supporting these links is shaky at best, which doesn't stop the Party from playing them up as much as possible, trying to create it's own version of the "threat" from Al Qaeda.
Growing resentment over religious and cultural restrictions placed on the ethnic minority has led to a number of bloody clashes in recent months. The June attack was the most deadly since a 2009 riot in the provincial capital, Urumqi, in which 200 people died.
The state-run Xinhua news agency published bellicose coverage of the trial, saying of the terrorist group that the sentenced men purportedly belonged to "Their methods were extremely cruel and the nature of the incident was especially evil. Given the grave outcome, the case must be strictly punished by law, and by law the sentence was rendered.".
