China reduces 11 sentences

BEIJING: Authorities in China´s unruly far-western region of Xinjiang have reduced the sentences of 11 people jailed for threatening state security after declaring success of a de-radicalisation programme, state news agency Xinhua reported.

Hundreds of people have been killed in violence in Xinjiang in the past few years.

The government blames the unrest on Islamist militants who want to establish an independent state called East Turkestan for minority Uighurs, a mostly Muslim people from Xinjiang who speak a Turkic language.

Seven of the convicts had their life sentences reduced to jail terms ranging from 19.5 years to 20 years, including people convicted of instigating "secessionist activities" or participating in terror attacks, Xinhua said late on Tuesday.

The other four had their jail terms cut by six months from initial sentences ranging from eight to 15 years, it added.  A spokesman for the main Uighur exile group dismissed the report as "political propaganda".