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China Sentences Two Ex-Xinjiang Officials to Death on Separatism Charges

VOA News

   Two former government officials in China's northwest region of Xinjiang
   have been sentenced to death on charges involving separatism.

   WangLangtao, the vice president of Xinjiang's higher people's court,
   told reporters Tuesday that SattarSawutandShirzatBawudunhave both been
   granted a two-year reprieve on their sentences. Such sentences are
   usually commuted to life imprisonment.

   SattarSawut, a former education official, has been convicted of
   incorporating ethnic separatism violence, terrorism and religious
   extremism into Uighur-language school textbooks.

   ShirzatBawudun, a former head of Xinjiang's regional justice
   department, has been convicted of colluding with members of the East
   Turkestan Islamic Movement, which has been listed as a terrorist group
   by the United Nations, as well as carrying out "illegal religious
   activities at his daughter's wedding."

   Beijing has launched a sweeping security campaign in Xinjiang that has
   led to the detention of morethanone million minority Uighurs, Kazakhs
   and other minority Muslim groups in Xinjiang. The Chinese government
   says the detainees are taught job skills and de-radicalized from
   anti-Beijing sentiments, a stance strongly disputed by the United
   States, which has denounced the treatment of the Uighurs as genocide.

   A StateDepartmentspokesman said Tuesday the UnitedStateswill hold talks
   with allies about a possible boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in
   Beijing over China's treatment of the Muslim Uighurs and other ethnic
   minority groups in Xinjiang, as well as its stifling of the
   pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong.

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