China sentenced six men to death and one to life imprisonment on Monday for murder, arson and robbery during an ethnic riot in Urumqi on July 5 that left almost 200 people dead.
The harsh verdicts for the seven members of the Muslim Uighur minority are part of a government attempt to calm tensions in the restive far-western region of Xinjiang by demonstrating that it is severely punishing the perpetrators of the riots. Xinhua, the official news agency, reported the verdicts just hours after state media had reported the opening of the trials.
