Death sentence over China riots

A court has sentenced a Han Chinese man to death for his role in a factory brawl that sparked the Xinjiang riots which left almost 200 people dead.

Another man was given a life sentence, state media reported.

The factory brawl in Guangdong province in June left two Muslim Uighurs dead and 14 others seriously injured.

It sparked the fighting in July between Uighurs and members of China's dominant Han ethnic group, which was the worst ethnic violence in China for decades.

The two men had faced charges of intentionally harming others. Nine others were given prison sentences of five to eight years, Xinhua news agency reported.

The brawl broke out at a Hong Kong-owned toy factory over rumours about an alleged rape.

A subsequent protest by the Uighur community in Urumqi, the capital of the western Xinjiang region, erupted in violence on July 5, with at least 197 people killed and another 1,700 injured.

The government says most of the dead were Han Chinese, but the exile activist group the World Uighur Congress claims many Uighurs were also killed.