A Chinese court has sentenced two men to death and another to life imprisonment for the murder of a state-approved imam in China's western Xinjiang region.
Chinese media reported on September 29 that a court in the Xinjiang city of Kashgar found Gheni Hasan and Nurmemet Abidilimit guilty of organizing and leading a terrorist group and also of premeditated homicide and sentenced them to death.
Atawulla Tursun was given a life sentence for participating in a terrorist attack and murder.
The names of the suspects suggest they are all ethnic Uyghurs, a Turkic Muslim group native to the Xinjiang region for centuries.
The imam, Jume Tahir, was killed outside the mosque he preached in after dawn prayers on July 30, amid a series of attacks on government institutions and workers that the Chinese authorities blame on Uyghur separatists.