Earlier this week, China executed nine men, including eight from the Muslim Uighur minority, for crimes committed during July riots that killed 200 people in the far western Xinjiang region. The men are the first to be put to death for the country’s worst ethnic violence in decades. The nine had been convicted of murder and other crimes committed during the unrest, which began July 5 when Uighurs in the regional capital of Urumqi attacked Han people, who make up China’s dominant ethnicity, only to face retaliatory attacks two days later.
Detainees are not getting fair trials, Tümtürk told the Anatolia news agency on Thursday, noting that neither independent/international observers nor families of the detainees were allowed to follow the trials. “Most of our siblings who were detained in the aftermath of the massacre in Urumqi on July 5 have died due to torture in prisons. This is unfortunately an incident that is kept out of sight of the international community as a result of China’s one-sided broadcasting policy,” Tümtürk was quoted as saying by the agency. Asked whether he had any figures concerning those detainees, Tümtürk said they guessed “thousands,” adding that he had no exact data.
