China Executes Nine

(Beijing, China) Prosecutions tied to deaths of Uighurs and Han Chinese during the violent July 2009 rioting in Xinjiang Province have resulted in nine people being executed.

Judging by their names, at least two of those sentenced were Han Chinese, while the others appeared to be Uighurs, a Turkic ethnic group that calls Xinjiang its homeland.

Dilxat Raxit, a spokesman for the exiled World Uyghur Congress, condemned the executions and said the government had denied the prisoners' rights by denying them a final visit from their families.

July's violence consisted of Uighurs attacking Han Chinese in Urumqi, Xinjiang province, as retaliation for a June attack against Uighurs at a toy factory in southern China.