China jails 11 for ethnic, religious hate crimes

BEIJING, June 20 (UPI) -- Some 11 people, possibly members of an ethnic Muslim group, have been imprisoned in China for ethnic and religious hate crimes, officials say.

Eight of the accused received sentences of two and five years for destroying televisions, the BBC reported Thursday.

Chinese state media said the destruction was committed in a religious frenzy.

One man was jailed for six years for using the Internet to promote Islamic holy war, officials said.

The names of the defendants suggested they were members of the minority Muslim Uighur sect in the far western region of Xinjiang, where Uighurs are 45 percent of the population and have had sporadic clashes with government troops and non-native Han Chinese.