Nine jailed for terrorism in public trial in China

Beijing, June 26 (IANS/EFE) Nine people were sentenced to up to 14 years in prison for involvement in terrorism in the northwestern Chinese region of Xinjiang, media reported Thursday.

More than 3,000 people attended the trial, People's Daily online reported.

The public trial took place in a sports facility in Qapqal near the border with Kazakhstan, an area dominated by Kazakh Muslims.

Those convicted were found guilty of "calling for holy war, separatism, attending overseas training camps for terrorists, and inciting ethnic hatred", the media spokesperson of the Communist Party said.

In May, the Chinese government launched an anti-terrorist campaign in response to several armed attacks by separatist forces of Xinjiang against the civilian population in various parts of China.

Dozens of people died in the attacks.

The launch of that campaign was followed by an increase in the number of arrests and sentences of alleged terrorists, many of them Uyghurs, a Muslim ethnic group that is in a majority in west and south Xinjiang.

Some of the trials conducted under the campaign have taken place in public places such as stadiums, a practice reminiscent of the times of the Cultural Revolution.

By doing so, the Xinjiang authorities are trying to give more resonance to their actions against terrorism.

On May 29, the human rights organisation, Amnesty International, condemned the "humiliating" celebration of one of those trials in the Yining sports stadium in northern Xinjiang, saying that such types of spectacles "will only exacerbate the tension in the area".

A total of 52 people were sentenced to different terms of imprisonment and another three handed the death sentence in that trial held May 27 in front of 7,000 spectators.

China blames terrorist groups associated with jihadi groups and those seeking the creation of an independent East Turkistan in Xinjiang for the attacks in the country such as the car bomb attack in a market in Urumqi, the region's capital, May 22 that left 39 dead and more than 90 wounded.

--IANS/EFE

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