198 People in Xinjiang Reportedly Sentenced in Trials Marked By Lack of Transparency

An official from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) reported that 198 people involved in 97 cases have been sentenced in the XUAR for crimes committed in July 2009, a period when demonstrations and rioting took place in the region. The figure appears to far exceed the number of cases reported to date by Chinese media. XUAR government chairperson Nur Bekri reported the figure at a March 7 press conference during the annual meeting of the National People's Congress, according to March 7 reports in English and Chinese from Xinhua, and suggested more sentences are possible, as trials are ongoing. While Nur Bekri said that handling of the cases adhered to the principle of open trials, as of the date he made his remarks, Chinese media appeared to have provided reports on only 76 people tried in connection to events in July (see table below), and details of the other trials appeared unknown. Though the trials of the 76 reportedly were open to the public (see Congressional-Executive Commission on China analyses 1, 2, 3 for more information), Chinese authorities reportedly attempted to control how reporters covered some of these cases. The actions come amid broader continuing controls over the free flow of information from the XUAR and contravene international standards for criminal trials, as well as broader protections for freedom of expression and of the press. Under Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which the Chinese government has signed and pledged to ratify, "any judgement rendered in a criminal case or in a suit at law shall be made public" except in limited cases involving children and matrimonial issues. Under General Comment Number 13 to this article of the ICCPR, "...a hearing must be open to the public in general, including members of the press, and must not, for instance, be limited only to a particular category of persons. It should be noted that, even in cases in which the public is excluded from the trial, the judgement must, with certain strictly defined exceptions, be made public." In addition, under Article 163 of the PRC Criminal Procedure Law (CPL), "In all cases, judgments shall be pronounced publicly." Both international law and Chinese law stipulate open trials except in limited circumstances (ICCPR Article 14, CPL Article 152). Under CPL Article 152, "cases involving State secrets or private affairs of individuals shall not be heard in public." Under CPL Article 163, such trials would remain subject nonetheless to the requirement that judgments be publicly announced.

Based on CECC analysis of Chinese media reports on the Internet and of PDFs of hardcopy articles from the Xinjiang Daily made available through Open Source Center, as of the date Nur Bekri announced that 198 people in 97 cases had been sentenced, Chinese media appeared to have provided news of the sentencing of 76 people in 26 cases:

* Ethnic group conjectured based on available names provided in media reports. ** The limited number of reports on this trial appear to have been removed from the Internet or are housed on malicious pages. See a cached page from the Xinjiang Daily (via Xinhua) for a copy of the article.

In addition to an apparent gap in reporting on cases from July, the CECC has tracked discrepancies between Chinese media's English-language reporting on the trials geared toward international audiences and Chinese-language reporting for domestic Chinese consumption. Based on CECC analysis, Chinese-language reports have described more details on detentions and trials, in at least one case indicating higher detention figures than reported in English, and in some cases suggesting some criminal charges could be of a political nature.

• Media coverage of late December trials differs. While the national state-run media agency Xinhua had provided English-language reports on trials in October and early December, English-language reporting on the late December and January trials appeared absent from Xinhua and other Chinese media agencies.
• Discrepancies in charges involved. In Xinhua reporting on the approval of the arrests (pizhun daibu) of 83 people, an August 4 English-language Xinhua article reported that XUAR procurator Otkur Abduraxman "said those arrested will face charges including murder, intentional injury, arson and robbery." According to Xinhua's Chinese-language report from the same day, however, the group also was suspected of "destroying vehicles, gathering crowds to disrupt social order, picking quarrels and making trouble, and inciting ethnic hatred and discrimination," in addition to the crimes listed in the English-language report. Earlier, a July 18 article from the Legal Daily, citing legal experts from the XUAR, had reported that suspects' alleged crimes related to events in July fell into five categories, including endangering state security (ESS), and included over 20 suspected crimes, including separatism and armed rebellion. Based on information reported by Chinese media, none of the July-related trials that took place in October, December, and January involved ESS crimes.
• Detention numbers vary. Xinhua reported in a July 10 Chinese-language article that authorities detained (zhuahuo) 190 people in a series of four operations on July 9 and July 10, in connection to events on July 5. As noted in an earlier CECC analysis, this news appears to have been unreported in official English-language media.

For more information on conditions in the XUAR, see Section IV―Xinjiang in the CECC 2009 Annual Report.