China announces more death sentences for Xinjiang riot

A policeman walks next to the wreckage of a destroyed car during a demonstration in Urumqi, Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region July 7, 2009.

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese court on Thursday handed down a further five death sentences to people convicted of murder and other crimes during ethnic rioting in the far western Xinjiang region in July in which almost 200 people died.

The official Xinhua news agency reported that a court in Urumqi, Xinjiang's regional capital, also jailed two defendants for life.

Judging by their names, the five people given the death penalty all appeared to be Uighurs, a Turkic minority that calls Xinjiang its homeland.

"Trials in five other cases connected with the riot will be heard by the court on Friday," Xinhua cited court sources as saying.

Last month, China executed nine people convicted of violent crimes in the ethnic unrest between Uighurs and majority Han Chinese.

In Xinjiang's worst ethnic violence in decades, Uighurs attacked Han Chinese in Urumqi, after taking to the streets to protest against attacks on Uighur workers at a factory in southern China in June that left two Uighurs dead.

Han Chinese in Urumqi sought revenge two days later.

The violence killed 197 people, mostly Han Chinese, and more than 1,600 were wounded, according to official figures.

Energy-rich Xinjiang, strategically located in central Asia, has been struck in recent years by bombings, attacks and riots blamed by Beijing on Uighur separatists demanding an independent "East Turkistan."

Many Muslim Uighurs resent government restrictions on their religion and culture and a massive influx of Han Chinese settlers that have in some areas reduced them to a minority in the region.

Rights groups and Uighur activists also say Beijing grossly exaggerates the threat from militants to justify harsh controls.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Alex Richardson)