A court in China has sentenced one man to death and a second to life imprisonment for their roles in a factory brawl in the southern city of Guandong in July. Nine others were given prison sentences ranging from five to eight years.

The convicted were all found guilty of belonging to a number of Han Chinese who attacked members of the mainly Muslim Uighur minority following rumours that Uighurs had raped two Han girls. Two Uighurs were lynched during the violence. A week later, a protest by the Uighur community resulted in the death of nearly 200 people, most of them Han Chinese.

Photo: protesting Uighurs (EPA)