China sentences four more for Urumqi needle attacks

Sep 17, 2009, 11:04 GMT

   Beijing - A court in China's troubled far-western city of Urumqi on Thursday sentenced another four men to long prison terms after convicting them of attacking a woman with a needle.

   The four men from the city's Uighur ethnic minority were given sentences ranging from eight years to 15 years in prison, following a trial just two weeks after their arrest, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

   The agency quoted prosecutors as saying the four men were convicted of stabbing the woman in the neck with a needle attached to syringe in pedestrian underpass in Urumqi on September 3

   It said the attack had 'triggered a public scare and caused protests' in Urumqi, the capital of the vast Xinjiang region.

   Abdulrusul Abdukhadi was given a 15-year sentence for stabbing the woman, while his three accomplices were given shorter sentences, the agency said.

   Urumqi police on Tuesday said a recent spate of attacks with hypodermic needles was organized by at least seven groups.

   The number of suspects held over the needle attacks had risen to 75 by Tuesday, including groups in six more areas of Xinjiang, the official China Daily quoted Zhang Jun, deputy director of the Urumqi public security bureau, as saying.

   The attacks by members of the Uighur minority were 'still haunting Urumqi residents,' especially members of the city's Han Chinese majority, Zhang said.

   The report was the first to blame the attacks on organized groups of Uighurs, although the government had previously claimed that Uighur exiles had planned the attacks.

   Three more Uighurs were sentenced to up to 15 years in prison on Saturday over needle attacks in Urumqi, also barely two weeks after their arrest.

   Since bloody ethnic riots in July which left at least 197 people dead, Urumqi has been plagued by tension between its ethnic Uighur and Han Chinese residents.

   Reports began appearing of attacks by Uighurs using needles in mid-August.

   The regional government said city hospitals had dealt with 531 victims of needle stabbings, most of them Han Chinese, with 106 people showing 'obvious signs' of needle attacks.

   The syringe attacks led to a mass protest by mainly Han Chinese, calling on the municipal and regional governments to step up security in the city.