The reported names of those convicted left little doubt that they were Uighurs, a Muslim, Turkic-speaking people native to Xinjiang. But the report did not specify their ethnicity. They were the first people to be convicted for involvement in the riots, and the convictions may revive memories of the discontent and bloodshed that have left Xinjiang increasingly divided.
"All seven men had been convicted of murder, and some of them were also convicted of arson or robbery," the report said. At least one of the men was found guilty of murdering five "innocents" with a dagger or beating them to death, Xinhua added. Another was found guilty of burning five people to death when he set fire to a shop, it said. But Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the exiled World Uyghur Congress, said the trial had been a sham, adding he feared those charged after the riots had been tortured in detention.
"The whole process lacked transparency and was unfair," he said by telephone. "They were not given any kind of legal aid. Uighurs have no protection under the law."
Last month, China announced the first charges to be laid in connection with the unrest, with 21 people charged with murder, arson, robbery and damaging property during ethnic riots that erupted in Urumqi, Xinjiang's capital, on July 5 in Xinjiang's worst ethnic violence in decades.
Many Uighurs resent government restrictions on their religion and culture and a massive influx of Han Chinese settlers which have in some areas reduced them to a minority in their own land.
