Nine Uighurs executed in China

October 20, 2009: exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer said she had learnt that "out of the 11 Uighurs who were sentenced to death [over the bloody unrest that erupted on July 5 in the Xinjiang capital Urumqi] ... nine people have been executed.”

"Punishing people who demonstrated peacefully is not necessary," she said, speaking with Agence France Presse during a visit to Japan.

Kadeer added that "according to new information we have obtained, from July 5 to October 1 more than 10,000 Uighurs have been arrested and jailed, but how many have died, or been killed, how many have been jailed, nobody knows the exact number."

Source: AFP, 21/10/2009