83 face charges for Urumqi riot

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-08-05 09:39

Authorities in Urumqi said Tuesday that 83 suspects, including Uygurs and Han, have been arrested so far in connection with the Urumqi riot on July 5, which left 197 people dead and more than 1,600 injured.

The suspects are facing charges of intentional homicide, intentional injury, arson, robbery, damaging vehicles, disrupting the social order, causing disturbances, instigating ethnic hatred as well as ethic discrimination, said the chief procurator of Urumqi People's Procuratorate Tuesday.

While preparing for the trials of the first batch of suspects, procurators will speed up working procedures and quickly arrest and prosecute detained suspects, the procurator said.

He also stressed that legal procedures would be strictly adhered to, from criminal detention and approving arrests to public prosecution and the first trials.

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So far, 718 people have been detained in connection with the Urumqi riot, said Chen Zhuangwei, head of the Public Security Bureau of Urumqi.

But according to previous figures released by the authority, more than 1,500 had been detained since the riot. Chen didn't mention the number of suspects who have been released.

More than 3,300 pieces of evidence including DNA, fingerprints and video footage have been collected and analyzed by police, Chen said.

Efforts over the past weeks to cope with the riot and to ensure social stability across the region have paid off, said Wang Lequan, secretary of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Committee of the Communist Party of China on Monday.

No serious incidents have cropped up in major prefectures since then, he said.

However, some instability still exists.

"We should ruthlessly crack down on criminals who attempt to stage terrorist attacks," he said. "Efforts should be made to foil any terrorist sabotage schemes before they materialize."

Also on Monday, China's anti-terrorism sources said police forces and state security agencies have prevented five organized terrorist attacks on civilians in the autonomous region.

Five organized terrorist plots were successively crushed in Urumqi, Kashgar, Aksu and Ili in Xinjiang.

China Daily-Xinhua