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A Chinese court has handed down the death penalty to six men involved in the deadly ethnic riots that convulsed the far western region of Xinjiang in July.
The convicts – all of whom have names suggesting they are from the Uighur ethnic minority – were found guilty of murder, arson and robbery during the riots, which left almost 200 people dead.
The sentencing – announced by the state-run China Central Television – appeared to be aimed at mollifying the anger of the Han Chinese majority, many of whom rallied in the regional capital of Urumqi last month to call for swift retribution.
But overseas Uighur groups warned that the harsh punishments and lack of due legal process could further inflame tensions.
Fears of new unrest prompted the authorities to step up security in Urumqi ahead of the sentencing.
According to China National Radio, about 14,000 security personnel were deployed in the city from Sunday. Television footage showed riot police lining the deserted streets in front of the courthouse.
There were no reports of fresh violence, but Xinjiang has become a divided city since the ethnic hostilities erupted on 5 July.
In the deadliest racial unrest in decades, 197 people were killed – some decapitated – and 1,600 injured. Most of the victims were Han.
Among those sentenced to death yesterday was Abdukerim Abduwayit, who was convicted of beating five people to death and an arson attack on a building.
Four other men were convicted of fatal assaults on four bystanders. The sixth man who faces execution set fire to a shop, killing five people inside.
A seventh defendant, Tayirejan Abulimit, was found guilty of rioting, but given a lesser sentence of life imprisonment because he helped the police apprehend other suspects, according to the Xinhua news agency.
Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the Germany-based World Uighur Congress, told Associated Press the verdicts were flawed and said they would probably aggravate tensions in the region. The timing appeared to indicate that China wanted the matter closed prior to next month's visit by the US president, Barack Obama, he said.
"These verdicts were motivated by politics, not the desire to see justice served," said Raxit, who added that the men could not have had a proper legal defence because their lawyers were appointed by the court.
The Urumqi riots flared up after Uighur youths rallied to demand an investigation into the murder of two Uighur workers by a mob of Han colleagues at a toy factory thousands of miles away in Guangdong, southern China.
In what appears to be synchronised sentencing, a court in Guangdong issued a death sentence at the weekend to one of those found guilty of that assault.
Ethnic strains have risen in Xinjiang as large numbers of Han settlers move into the historically Muslim Uighur region to take advantage of a booming economy fuelled by the extraction of oil and gas.
Tensions were heightened further last week when al-Qaida called on Uighurs to launch a holy war against the Chinese government.
"What we saw and heard in the recent events in Turkistan was not accidental and didn't happen overnight. This is an intifada [uprising] and a usual response to the decades of oppression, the organised cleansing and the systematic repression until the people had enough," Abu Yahia Al-Libi, a senior member of al-Qaida said last week. Independence organisations refer to Xinjiang by its historic name East Turkistan.
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