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China court to try 200 over Xinjiang riots

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] More than 200 people detained during last month's violent demonstrations in China's Xinjiang province will go on trial this week, Chinese state media reported Monday. The trials will take place in the Intermediate People's Court in Urumqi, the capital of the primarily Muslim region. The defendants will face charges ranging from vandalism to murder. Reports did not indicate how many defendants were Uighur and how many were Han Chinese, but did say that 170 Uighur and 20 Han lawyers were assigned to the case. Earlier this month, Chinese authorities announced charges of murder, intentional injury, arson, and robbery against 83 people accused of participating in violent demonstrations. Xinjiang Prosecutor Utiku'er Abudrehman has said that 718 people, both Han Chinese and ethnic minority Uighur, are detained in connection with the riots as a result of police investigations of damaged stores, homes, and vehicles, as well as photographs and videos of the riots. In early July, violence broke out between Han Chinese and Uighur residents in Xinjiang's regional capital. After two days of rioting, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay called for restraint from all sides and a respect for due process in arrests and prosecutions. The Chinese government claims that the majority of the 197 killed and 1,600 injured in the violence were Han residents killed by protesters, although the WUC and the UAA maintain that many protesters were killed by authorities but not included in the official death toll. Chinese officials have acknowledged that 12 protesters were killed by police. The Uighur population, which is Muslim, is opposed to China's restrictive bans on religious practice, and say that the recent influx of Han Chinese has disenfranchised non-Chinese-speaking Uighurs.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on August 24, 2009 (boomark / email).