Execution news flies via text messages

By Cui Jia (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-11-11 08:22

URUMQI: Residents in the capital of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region were informed yesterday via text messages about the recent execution of nine men for their roles in the deadly July 5 riots and the prosecution of alleged riot suspects.

Related full coverage: Urumqi Riots
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The messages were sent by the region's information office following a statement about the latest prosecutions and executions by the Urumqi procuratorate late Monday.

Twenty more suspects charged with murder, arson, robbery, intentional injury and causing explosions have been prosecuted for their alleged connection with the riots that left 197 dead and more than 1,700 injured.

They were allegedly involved in 10 cases that left 18 people dead, injured three and resulted in damaged property worth up to 2.3 million yuan ($366,000), according to the statement.

A suspect accused of killing an armed police officer is among the 20 under prosecution.

Maimaiti'aili Yisilabu, 24, of Kashgar, was detained for allegedly killing officer Wan Jingang on Sept 18 and formally arrested a week later, said Su Yanbing, deputy head of the Urumqi public security bureau.

Yisilabu admitted to killing the 30-year-old on July 5 during the riots. Wan, married with a child, died after he was struck in the back of the head by bricks.

Wan is the only officer who died during the riots, local authorities said.

The group of 20 suspects will be tried at the Urumqi Intermediate Court, where the first batch of 21 rioters was tried in September.

Among the 21, nine received death sentences, three were handed death sentences with a two-year reprieve - a sentence often commuted to life in prison - and four were sentenced to life in prison. Five others were handed lesser prison terms.

The nine who received death sentences were executed after the Supreme People's Court reviewed the verdicts. But there are no details of how, when and where those suspects were executed. China currently uses two methods of execution: gunfire or lethal injection.

"The Chinese government has dealt with these relevant cases according to the law," foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said yesterday in response to the handling of the executions.