A further five death sentences have been handed down to people involved in ethnic rioting in July in Xinjiang, Reuters reported. This comes after nine executions were carried out in November of people convicted of violent crimes during the ethnic unrest between Uighurs and Han Chinese which took 197 lives, most of them Han. Judging by their names, the five people who received death sentences on Thursday were Uighurs. According to state media reports, a court in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, also jailed two defendants for life. Five other cases connected with the rioting are due to be heard today. The violence flared after Uighurs in Xinjiang took to the streets in protest against attacks on Uighur workers at a factory in southern China. The protestors attacked Han Chinese in Urumqi and, two days later, the Han retaliated.
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