China supreme court official urges quick trials of terror crimes

Courts in Xinjiang should speed up trials of terror cases and deliver exemplary penalties, a senior official with China's Supreme People's Court (SPC) said Thursday.

Current policies should be maintained against "three evil forces" of terrorism, separatism and extremism, said SPC executive vice president Shen Deyong while addressing Xinjiang court support staff.

Cases involving ethnic minorities should be handled no differently from any other, Shen said, suggesting that local judges' professionalism needs to improve to protect rights of all people equally.

In June, nine people were sentenced to death for terrorism in northwest China's Xinjiang. Local courts sentenced 81 defendants in 23 cases to death, life imprisonment and fixed-term imprisonment.

The verdicts include organizing, leading or participating in terrorist organizations, intentional homicide, arson or illegal manufacture, storage and transport of explosives, making and spreading audio or video information on terrorism, inciting ethnic hatred and discrimination, and teaching criminal methods.

The number of terror cells apprehended in Xinjiang increased from about 140 in 2010 to more than 200 last year.