Source: Global Times   [03:20 October 13 2009]

 

By Qiu Wei

Six death penalties and a life-imprisonment sentence were handed down Monday in the first verdicts over the unrest in the western Xinjiang region three months ago that left almost 200 dead.

The sentencing appeased some victims’ families, who nonetheless maintained their call for more timely punishments for those charged.

The heavily police-guarded Intermediate People’s Court in Urumqi sentenced the seven Uygur men convicted of crimes such as murder, arson and robbery in the July 5 riot. Mobs on that day claimed 197 lives and injured more than 1,600.

The seven tried were among the 21 people who have been charged. Trials for the remaining 14 are scheduled in the coming days, Hou Hanmin, a spokeswoman for the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, told the Global Times Monday.

It was unknown whether the Uygurs would appeal the rulings.

Abdukerim Abduwayit, Gheni Yusup, Abdulla Mettohti, Adil Rozi, Nureli Wuxiu’er and Alim Metyusup were sentenced to death. Tayirejan Abulimit was given the lesser punishment of life imprisonment, as he confessed to crimes of murder and robbery and helped the police capture Metyusup.

Abduwayit killed five people with a dagger and pipe wrench during the riot. He also set fire to a downtown building, resulting in 13 people being injured from jumping off the building and causing economic losses of more than 260,000 yuan ($38,000), according to the sentencing report.

In the second case, Yusup led Mettohti, Rozi and Wuxiu’er in beating four people to death and injuring another. Mettohti and others also set a grain-and-oil shop ablaze, killing five people who were hiding inside and causing an economic loss of 1.37 million yuan.

Metyusup and Abulimit together killed three people and seriously injured one person. Metyusup, together with other mobs, also killed another two people and set fire to houses, resulting in an economic loss of more than 50,000 yuan.

Habibulla Abdusalam, director of ethnic literature studies at the Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences, said the sentencing would likely appease victims’ families and help residents feel like life has returned to normal.

“Lawbreakers, regardless of their ethnic backgrounds, should be held accountable and punished. All ethnicities suffered from the brutal killings,” Abdusalam said. “As a Uygur, I believe the love of humanity should be broad and go beyond ethnicities. Rioters do not deserve tolerance by their co-ethnic people.”

Police have detained hundreds of people suspected of crimes related to the unrest, earlier reports said.

Dai Xiaoli, 42, a Han woman whose sister was killed on her way home from work during the riot, said the families felt somewhat relieved after the sentencing. But Dai urged authorities to bring more rioters to justice as soon as possible.

“It has been more than three months since the bloody incident. Why there are only so few people sentenced?” Dai asked.

Dai said that she had asked the police department about the investigation of her sister’s death but was told only that it was hard to track down her sister’s assailant.

“We have received 420,000 yuan in compensation from the government. But it’s not a matter of money. My family has suffered too much for my sister’s death,” Dai said.

Urumqi has been under heavy security since the unrest. The situation got tenser amid a wave of syringe attacks beginning in late August.

Four people were given hefty sentences ranging from eight to 15 years in prison September 17 for stabbing a pedestrian with a syringe in Urumqi, which triggered a public scare and caused violent protests.

The sense of security has been restored now. Nearly 14,000 community volunteers have joined police forces since September to maintain social order as they formed more than 700 unarmed security teams patrolling the city around the clock, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

Dai runs a store in southern Urumqi, where most residents are Uygurs. She said that she does not worry about the safety now, as there are a lot of armed police patrolling the street, but it is very hard to keep the business going.

“Ninety percent of my customers are Uygurs. But the volume every day is only dozens of yuan, and I close the store at 9:30 pm at the latest. I really don’t know if it can still sustain,” Dai said with anxiety.

The number of domestic tourists to Xinjiang slumped 26.6 percent, year-on-year, to 1.3 million during the National Day holiday, Xinhua reported.

The World Uygur Congress condemned the sentences, saying that the defendants were not given access to lawyers of their own choosing, AFP reported.

But according to the official press release, the public prosecutors presented testimonies of witnesses, autopsy reports and other evidences at the court, and played monitoring video of the scenes of crimes.

The defendants provided explanation against their charges and their lawyers defended at the court. More than 400 people, including legislators, family members of the defendants and victims, and journalists, observed the hearings.

The court proceedings were done in the Uygur language along with simultaneous interpretation.

Hao Zhou, Kang Juan and An Baijie contributed to this story