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June 6, 2014

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9 terrorists given death sentence

Source: Xinhua/Shanghai Daily | June 6, 2014, Friday | Print Edition

NINE people were sentenced to death yesterday for terrorist activities in northwest China’s Xinjiang, as part of a nationwide crackdown on separatist militants.

Authorities have launched a yearlong anti-terrorism operation, and hundreds of suspects have already been detained.

Courts in six Xinjiang cities and prefectures sentenced 81 people in 23 cases. As well as the nine who were sentenced to death, three others received the death penalty with a two-year reprieve, while others were given prison terms of up to life, the regional higher people’s court said.

In 13 of the cases, 68 people were charged with the crimes of organizing, leading or participating in terrorist organizations, murder, arson, and the illegal manufacture, storage and transport of explosives.

In the remaining cases, 13 people were sentenced for making and spreading terrorist messages via audio or video, inciting ethnic hatred and discrimination, or teaching criminal methods.

The crimes were the focus of the region’s special operation to combat terrorism, the higher court said.

Meanwhile, the Xinjiang regional government said that 29 other suspects have been rounded up on charges such as inciting separatism in the regional capital Urumqi, where 39 people were killed in a suicide bomb attack at a market on May 22.

Since the blast, officials have issued announcements citing more than 300 arrests and scores of prosecutions resulting in stiff sentences including the death penalty.

Authorities have said 23 extremist groups have been broken up, including a group of five allegedly plotting another bomb attack. Last week, officials said 55 people charged with terrorism and other crimes had been sentenced in northern Xinjiang, of whom at least three were given the death penalty.

In the Urumqi market bombing, terrorists tossed explosives from SUVs as they plowed through shoppers. A total of 43 people were killed — including four of the attackers — in the region’s deadliest violent incident in recent history.

Three earlier attacks were also blamed on Xinjiang extremists.

On April 30, an apparent suicide bombing at an Urumqi train station killed two suspected insurgents and one bystander.

In March, 29 people were stabbed to death at a train station in Kunming, and last October, two tourists and three terrorists were killed in an attack at Tian’anmen Square.

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