A court in Xinjiang has tried and sentenced three suspects accused of joining in an outburst of needle-stabbing that ignited sometimes deadly riots and deepened ethnic divisions in the tense frontier region.
The Intermediate Court of Urumqi yesterday announced jail sentences of up to 15 years against the suspects — the first to appear before a judge over the scare — the Xinhua news agency reported.
Muhutaerjiang Turdi, a 34-year-old man, and Aimannisha Guli, a 22-year-old woman, were jailed for 10 years and seven years respectively. They were accused of using a syringe to threaten a taxi driver into giving them 710 yuan (US$103), Xinhua reported.
In a separate trial in the same court, Yilipan Yilihamu, 19, was sentenced to 15 years on a charge of “spreading false dangerous substances.”
He was accused of jabbing a woman with a pin while she bought fruit at a stall, Xinhua said.
The report said the defendants were Uighurs.
Urumqi has been struggling to return to order after panic and protests over claims that Uighurs used syringes to attack residents, especially members of China’s Han ethnic Chinese majority, who many Uighurs see as an unwelcome and growing presence in the region.
TIBET
Meanwhile, a British minister underlined London’s support for greater Tibetan autonomy on an unprecedented visit to Lhasa last week.
Junior Foreign Office Minister Ivan Lewis visited China from Monday to Thursday and made the first ever trip to Tibet by a British government member, 18 months after an internationally criticized Chinese crackdown in Tibet.
“This is a historic visit,” the office quoted him as saying on Friday, adding that it was in the context of “our decision to change UK policy, and the significant international concern following the events in March 2008.”
“We recognise Tibet as an autonomous region of China ... But long-term stability can only be achieved through respect for human rights and greater autonomy,” the statement quote him as saying.
“This depends on substantive dialogue between the Chinese government and the representatives of the Dalai Lama,” he said.
In Tibet, Lewis met the chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region and the Drepung Monastery.
Ahead of the visit, pro-Tibet campaigners urged Lewis to speak out against China’s rule of the Himalayan territory and human rights abuses there.
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