China sentences two former Uyghur govt officials to death on 'separatism' charges

China on April 6 sentenced two Uyghur former government officials of Xinjiang to death along with a two-year reprieve on charges including ‘separatism’ and bribe-taking. The court handed the sentence on Tuesday to Sattar Sawut and Shirzat Bawudun as Beijing comes under fire for its actions towards the minority groups in the region. The latest action by China’s authoritarian regime against Xinjiang bureaucrats include Bawudan, a former head of the Xinjiang Department of justice and Sawut, a former director of the Xinjiang education department. 

Almost all members of the Muslim Turkic Uyghur minority group are set to be sentenced on national security charges. Chian has termed this clampdown as terminating “two-faced officials” who according to the government, are trying to undermine the Chinese rule from within the system. As per the Associated Press report, such sentences are often commuted to life in prison owing to ‘good behaviour’ in two years. Both Sawut and Bawudun pleaded guilty and none of them would file an appeal, stated Wang Langtao, vice president of Xinjiang’s regional higher people’s court.

Court orders against Sawut and Bawudun

On April 6, the Chinese court said that the former head of the regional education department “incorporated ethnic separatism, violence, terrorism, and religious extremism content into minority-language textbooks.” the court reportedly said that the textbooks had further influenced several people to participate in attacks in Urumqi including riots that further resulted in at least 200 deaths back in 2009.

“Sattar Sawut took advantage of compiling and publishing ethnic language textbooks for primary and secondary schools to split the country, starting in 2002. He instructed others to pick several people with separatist thoughts to join the textbook compilation team, the court found,” said Chinese agency citing comments by Wang at a news conference, as per Associated Press.

Wang also said in the news conference that  the former head of the Xinjiang regional justice department was convicted of “splitting the country” to have sided with the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) and having “offered help to separatists and religious extremists, and collaborated with overseas separatist forces.” The United Nations (UN) has listed ETIM as a terrorist group even though many experts questions whether it exists in operational form.

Image credits: AP