China sentences 12 to death for Xinjiang attack

The July attack in Shache county killed 37 civilians and 59 'terrorists', and was the bloodiest incident in in Xinjiang since 2009.

BEIJING // A Chinese court sentenced 12 people to death on Monday in connection with a July attack in violence-racked Xinjiang.

Another 15 people were given suspended death sentences, said the Xinjiang government’s web portal, Tianshan.

Thirty-seven civilians and 59 “terrorists” were killed and another 13 civilians wounded in the July 28 attack on a police station and government offices in Shache county, also known as Yarkand, according to state media.

The incident was the bloodiest in Xinjiang since the 2009 rioting involving members of China’s Han majority and the mostly Muslim Uighur minority killed 200 people in the capital of Urumqi.

The sentences bring the number of death sentences passed for Xinjiang-related violence to almost 40 since June.

“In adjudicating the case, the court fully implemented the criminal policy of combining justice with mercy,” Tianshan said.

In addition to the 15 given a suspended death sentence, nine people were sentenced to life in prison and 20 were given sentences ranging from four to 20 years.

State broadcaster CCTV ran footage from the sentencing on its Monday broadcast, showing several defendants standing in court wearing bright orange prison vests, with their heads shaved.

Prosecutors showed images of large vehicles and axes they said were used in connection with the attack.

Overseas-based Uighur exile groups have cast doubt on the government’s version of events in July, saying that Beijing’s security forces used submachine guns and sniper rifles, leading to “huge casualties”.

Access to information in Xinjiang is strictly controlled by the authorities and reports often cannot be independently verified.

Beijing has blamed a series of recent violent attacks on separatists from Xinjiang. Rights groups accuse China’s government of cultural and religious repression which they say fuels unrest in the region.

The sentences are the latest in a series of harsh punishments by Chinese authorities, who are in the midst of a campaign against violence in Xinjiang.

Last month a court in Kashgar sentenced to death two teenagers for the killing of Jume Tahir, the head of the country’s biggest mosque.

The government-appointed imam was killed two days after the Yarkand incident.

Another three people were given death penalties earlier in September over a mass stabbing that killed 31 people in the southwestern city of Kunming in March.

In August, China announced the execution of eight people for "terrorist attacks", including three who were described as masterminding a fiery car attack in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in October last year.

Violence in the region has intensified in recent months.

In September, 40 “rioters” were killed after a series of explosions in Luntai county.

The violence took place just two days before prominent Muslim Uighur scholar Ilham Tohti was convicted of separatism and sentenced to life in prison.

International rights groups have called for Mr Tohti’s release and denounced the trial, which they say was retribution for the scholar’s outspoken criticism of Communist Party policies towards Uighurs.

* Agence France-Presse