39 convicted of terror crimes in Xinjiang
Print Edition
A COURT in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region yesterday reported its latest efforts against violence, following a series of terror attacks conducted by religious extremists, saying that 39 people were convicted on Tuesday.
Yu Huitang, spokesman with the Xinjiang Regional Higher People’s Court, said there had been 16 trials since March 31 for offences including spreading video footage that incited violence, organizing and taking part in terrorist activities, advocating ethnic hatred and illegally manufacturing firearms.
China has witnessed a surge in terror attacks under the name of Islam.
Three people were killed and 79 injured in an attack on April 30 at a railway station in Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital.
And in March, assailants killed 29 people and injured another 143 at a railway station in the southwestern city of Kunming.
Incite violence
A police investigation found evidence linking the crimes to Xinjiang separatists.
Yu said separatists from home and abroad use the Internet and mobile storage devices to incite activities.
He said the courts, the procuratorate, public security, cultural, industry and commerce departments in Xinjiang have launched a concerted campaign against the spread of video and audio footage inciting violence.
Yu said the sentences are a warning to those with religious extremist thoughts and who seek to incite violence.
Among those convicted was 25-year-old Maimaitiniyazi Aini. He was given a five-year sentence for inciting ethnic hatred and ethnic discrimination for comments he made in six chat groups involving 1,310 people, the Supreme Court said.
In another case, a Xinjiang native who watched violent videos on his mobile phone resolved to start a “jihad.” He and two other people set up a terror group and decided to make guns. He was sentenced to 14 years.
Uploaded footage
In recent years, East Turkistan terrorist forces, led by the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), have uploaded audio and video footage about terrorism on to the Internet to instigate a so-called “jihad.”
It has become one of the major and direct causes for the growing number of terrorist attacks in China, particularly in Xinjiang, in recent years.
In 2013, ETIM was said to have produced and publicized 107 such audios and videos, the Legal Daily reported.
ETIM claimed responsibility for last month’s Urumqi attack, saying a member called Ismail Yusup from outside China ordered 10 partners in Xinjiang to strike.
It also said it was behind the terrorist attack at Beijing’s Tian’anmen Square last October, in which two tourists and three of eight terror suspects were killed.
On March 31, courts, the procuratorate, public security, cultural, industry and commerce departments in Xinjiang issued a notice banning the spread of video and audio that incites violence.
In subsequent raids, police held 232 people — 71 of whom were detained and 34 of whom were arrested.
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