45 sentenced in Xinjiang cases tied to illegal border crossings

Forty-five people were sentenced recently in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region for trying to go abroad illegally to join religious extremists and wage war, or for helping people cross the border illegally.

Two people were sentenced to life in prison for smuggling 305 people to Vietnam. The others received sentences from four to15 years' imprisonment for organizing, leading or otherwise participating in terrorist cells, sponsoring terrorist cells or organizing people to cross the border illegally, the Xinjiang information office said in a statement released on Wednesday night.

Of the 10 cases tried in southern Xinjiang's Aksu, Kashgar and Hotan prefectures, northern Xinjiang's Ily Kazak autonomous prefecture, and the oil city of Karamay, two were handed to Xinjiang authorities by law enforcement authorities outside the region. Eighteen human traffickers from the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region were sentenced.