First executions after unrest in north-west China (Roundup)

Nov 9, 2009, 14:38 GMT

   Beijing - Nine Uighurs were executed in connection with the July unrest in China's far north-west Xinjiang province, the country's state-controlled media reported Monday.

   The executions were carried out last Wednesday after the Supreme Court in Beijing confirmed the death sentences, the China News Service agency reported. No further details were known.

   News of the executions came to light in the last part of a lengthy report on the ongoing court case in the Xinjiang capital of Urumqi.

   The Munich, Germany-based exile organization the World Congress of Uighurs, condemned the executions, saying the trials were carried out behind closed doors and did not conform to international standards.

'The nine Uighurs were not allowed even to see their families before the execution,' said Dilxat Rexiti, spokesman for the Uighur organization.

Rexiti called on Germany and the European Union to demand China to provide proof of their allegations against the defendants as well as to allow an independent investigation into the Xinjiang riots.

   Murder and arson were among the crimes levelled against alleged participants in the unrest in the majority Uighur Muslim province, which started when Uighurs in Urumqi took to the streets in response to the death of two Uighur workers at the hands of a mob in southern China. The protests turned violent, with attacks between Uighurs and national majority ethnic Han Chinese.

Around 200 people lost their lives in the ethnic violence, according to Chinese authorities. Exile Uighur groups however claim that the total dead toll was as high as 800.

   As of mid-October 12 people - including a Han Chinese - were sentenced to death over the riots. Three of the sentences were suspended for two years, after which such sentences are normally commuted to life in prison, subject to good behaviour.