"Today a group of 22 people suspected in the July 5 incident were tried," Hou Hanmin, spokesman with Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region government told AFP by phone.

"A verdict was reached in the afternoon but I do not have the specifics."

Han said the verdicts would be reported later by state-run media.

So far, 41 people have been tried and sentenced over the unrest, including 12 sentenced to death. Nine of those defendants were executed in November.

Based on names provided in state media reports, most of those sentenced to death and executed have been Uighurs, a Muslim minority that has long complained of repression in Xinjiang under Chinese rule.

The violence erupted in the streets of the Xinjiang capital Urumqi in July, when Uighurs attacked members of China's Han ethnic majority.

In subsequent days, mobs of Han roamed the streets seeking revenge.

The ethnic violence was the worst in China in decades.

Uighurs say the violence was initially triggered when police cracked down harshly on peaceful protests in Urumqi sparked by a brawl at a factory in southern China that state media said left two Uighurs dead.

China claims it faces a serious separatist threat in Xinjiang. But exiled Uighurs say Beijing exaggerates the threat to justify harsh controls in the strategic western region, which is rich in energy reserves.

China's roughly eight million Turkic-speaking Uighurs accuse authorities of decades of religious, political and cultural oppression -- which Beijing denies -- and tensions have simmered in Xinjiang for years.

In recent weeks, Chinese police have been rounding up suspects that fled Urumqi after the unrest, with the government reporting earlier this month that 94 fugitives had been brought into custody after fleeing.

On Saturday, Cambodia handed over to China 20 Uighur Muslims who had sought political refuge in the Southeast Asian nation following the July unrest.

On Tuesday, a UN human rights expert in Geneva called the expulsion of Chinese Uighurs "a blatant violation" of anti-torture rules and urged an independent probe into their cases.

"I am calling on the Chinese authorities to treat the 20 persons humanely upon return in accordance with international standards, to grant access to them in case they are detained and to afford them due process guarantees, if charged with criminal offences", UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak said in a statement.

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