BEIJING - 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 Uighur American Association, in a statement emailed to AFP late Thursday, condemned the convictions of the men in the region's Yili prefecture, urging skepticism 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 July 5 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. -- AFP