China executes eight Uighurs and one Han, Indicts 20 more over July “ethnic riots.” Uighur activists claim verdicts were political and the executed did not receive a fair trial.
The news service said another 20 people were indicted on Monday on charges related to the deaths of 18 people and other crimes committed during the riots. All but two of the prisoners listed in the report had Uighur sounding names, with the others appearing to be Han.
Overseas Uighur activist Dilxat Raxit condemned the executions as motivated by politics and the need to appease Urumqi’s angry Han residents, who marched in the thousands through the city in September to demand trials of those responsible for the July violence and the perpetrators of a bizarre series of hypodermic needle attacks.
“We don’t think they got a fair trial, and we believe this was a political verdict,” said Raxit, who serves as spokesman for the Germany-based World Uyghur Congress.
“The United States and the European Union did not put any pressure on China or seek to intervene and for that we are extremely disappointed,” he said.
