China sentences four for 'plotting attacks' and 'trying to join foreign terror groups'
People with Uygur-sounding names handed up to 20-year prison sentences for alleged terror activities
A Chinese court has sentenced four people to up to 20 years in jail for “plotting terror attacks”, state media said, the latest in a wave of rulings as the government accelerates a crackdown on what it says is violence fuelled by Islamist militants.
The four were found guilty of “participating in terrorist organisations, illegally making explosives, offering funds or harbouring suspects”, the Xinhua news agency said late on Wednesday, in a report on their trial in the southwestern province of Yunnan.
The defendants, three men and a woman, “came under influence of extremist religious thoughts” and “accepted extremist religious thoughts and violent terrorism views”, Yunnan.cn, a news portal of the government-owned Yunnan Daily reported the court as saying.
“The court said the gang ... made explosives in Beijing and Yunnan, attempting to launch jihad,” Xinhua added
Two of the defendants were detained when trying to cross the border in neighbouring Guangxi province to join the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, a separatist group the Chinese government has accused of committing a series of terrorist acts in Xinjiang.
The other two were captured in Honghe, the Yunnan.cnreport said without giving the date of their arrest.
All four defendants, who are Uygur judging by their names, appealed against the rulings, it said.