Authorities in China´s mainly Muslim Xinjiang mounted a mass sentencing in a stadium for 55 people on offences including terrorism, state media said Wednesday, as they press a crackdown on escalating violence. About 7,000 people and Communist Party officials in Ili prefecture attended the “mass gathering for public sentencing, public arrests and public criminal detention, punishing a group of violent terrorist criminals in accordance with the law”, said a report published by the official news agency Xinhua.
Judicial officials at the stadium issued punishments for crimes including murder, separatism and organising, leading or participating in a terrorist group, harbouring criminals and rape.
Three were sentenced to death for using hatchets and other weapons to murder a family of four last year “using extremely cruel methods”, the report said.
At the stadium, police also announced the formal arrests of 38 suspects and detained another 27.
