BEIJING: Chinese courts in the far-western region of Xinjiang have sentenced 32 people to prison terms ranging from four years to life for terrorism-related charges, state media reported yesterday.
The sentences were handed down Thursday by courts in seven cities and prefectures in Xinjiang, the official Xinhua news agency said.
The verdicts covered spreading “terror-related audio and video and organising terrorist groups,” Xinhua said, citing 11 cases of “terror audio and video.”
Three people received life sentences while the remaining 29 were handed between four to 15 years in jail, the report said, citing a statement issued by Xinjiang authorities.
The sentences come after China launched a crackdown following several high-profile attacks blamed on militants from the far-western region, home to the mostly Muslim Uighur minority.
Since late last year the attacks have spread outside Xinjiang and targeted ordinary citizens rather than government or security personnel as in the past.
The violence included a fiery vehicle crash at Tiananmen Square, Beijing’s symbolic heart, in October, a knife assault at a railway station in southern Yunnan province in March that killed 29 people and an explosive and vehicle attack on a market in Xinjiang’s capital Urumqi in May that killed 39. AFP
