CHINA. EXECUTION OF MUSLIM SEPARATIST

February 8, 2007: China executed an alleged Muslim separatist with a bullet through the heart. Ismail Semed, an Uighur from China's far western region of Xinjiang, was sentenced to death in 2005 after being found guilty of trying to "split the motherland" and of possession of firearms and explosives.
Amnesty International warned in a report last year that Semed's confession may have been extracted under torture. The US-based Human Rights Watch said the trial was flawed.
Turkic-speaking Muslim Uighurs account for 8 million of the 19 million people in Xinjiang. (Sources: Guardian Unlimited, 9/02/2007)