China sentenced 19 people in restive Xinjiang to jail terms of three years to life for state security crimes, some in connection with deadly ethnic unrest in July, a US-based activist group said.

The Uyghur American Association, in a statement e-mailed to AFP late Thursday, condemned the convictions of the men in the region's Yili prefecture, urging scepticism about the charges "in the absence of an open [...] trial."

According to a report on the official China News Service on October 23, the defendants -- whose names indicated they were from the mainly Muslim Uighur minority -- were charged with "harming state security."

The ringleader of the group was sentenced to life in prison for activities that included setting up a group that incited people to disobey government rule and advocating "holy war", the news report said.

He had also planned to organise an "illegal protest" in Yining city after hearing of the 5 July ethnic unrest in Urumqi that left nearly 200 people dead, but abandoned his plans due to heavy security, according to the report.

The other 18 men were sentenced to between three to 15 years in jail for various "separatist" crimes and intentional injury, some linked to the Urumqi violence.

"It remains a distinct possibility that these men were prosecuted and convicted based on attending peaceful religious meetings and planning to engage in peaceful protest activities," said exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer.

An official at the Yili prefecture branch of the Xinjiang higher people’s court, who refused to be named, told AFP he could not give out any "related information."

Two weeks ago, 21 defendants in the regional capital Urumqi were tried over the 5 July unrest. Twelve were given the death penalty. Those sentences were upheld on Friday.

China's roughly eight million Turkic-speaking Uighurs have long complained of religious, political and cultural oppression by Chinese authorities, and tensions have simmered in Xinjiang for years.

China says it faces a serious terrorist threat from Muslim separatists in Xinjiang but rights groups have accused Beijing of exaggerating the threat in order to justify very tight controls in the region.

Source: AFP