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Kashgar court sentences Uyghur teens to death for imam's killing

A third suspect was given life in prison for the murder of Juma Tayier
Kashgar court sentences Uyghur teens to death for imam's killing

Uyghur women stand outside the Id Kah mosque in Kashgar, where Imam Juma Tayier was kiilled in an attack in July. (AFP photo/Carol Huang)

Published: September 29, 2014 04:09 PM GMT
Updated: September 29, 2014 05:24 AM GMT

A court in Kashgar sentenced two Uyghur teenagers to death on Sunday for the murder of one of China’s leading imams in an attack viewed as a direct challenge to Beijing’s control of Islam in restive Xinjiang province.

Gheni Hasan, 18, and Nurmemet Abidilimit, 19, were given death sentences for the killing of Juma Tayier, head of Id Kah mosque in Kashgar, which is China's largest, during a bloody attack in July, reported the state-run China Daily.

A third man, Atawula Turson, received a life sentence for terrorism and involvement in the killing, it added.

“The court said the gang, led by Gheni Hasan, was influenced by religious extremism and trained its members to murder patriotic religious figures,” said China’s official news agency Xinhua.

Tayier, 74, was attacked by three men with knives after leading early morning prayers at the 400-year-old Id Kah mosque on July 30.

Police shot and killed two of the suspects at the scene and caught Abidili, then two days later arrested Hasan in the mostly Uyghur town of Hotan and charged him with organizing the attack, according to Xinhua.

Hasan graduated from junior high school in Kashgar and then worked on construction sites. In early 2013, he came into contact with an extremist Muslim group and began to distribute violent videos and “illegal religious materials”, according to previous reports in China's state-run media.

Tayier, who was also the vice chairman of the Xinjiang Islamic Association, was considered to be closely aligned to the Communist party and was cited in state media criticizing Xinjiang’s separatist movement.

The case represents the latest in a series of death sentences handed down on minority Muslim Uyghurs found guilty of terrorist charges by Chinese courts this year.

Earlier this month, three Uyghur men were sentenced to death for their roles in an attack on Kunming railway station in March that left 31 people dead and 141 injured.

“Chinese law allows terror suspects to be held incommunicado without access to lawyers for months in a secret location,” said Maya Wang, China researcher for Human Rights Watch. “Given the government’s chequered record on torture in its criminal justice system, we are very concerned whether they have been given a fair trial.”

Following a deadly attack in Xinjiang’s capital Urumqi in May, the government started stricter polices in the region that have included China’s first mass trials in two decades.

Reports in Chinese media have mostly blamed the recent upsurge in violence on young, disenchanted Uyghurs influenced by extremist Islamic teachings.

In response, authorities have in recent weeks raided madrassas and “illegal Muslim schools” in Xinjiang.

Muhati, a Uyghur man who declined to give his full name for security reasons, said there is growing discontent among young Muslim men because under-18s are banned from mosques and Uyghur-language schools are not permitted.

“More and more young people are unhappy with the authorities,” he said by telephone from Xinjiang’s capital Urumqi. “They are the people who may [decide to] sacrifice their lives if their interests are offended.”

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