Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Kuytun City People's Court

Criminal Verdict

(2016) Xinjiang 4003 Criminal Initial No. 5

Public prosecutor: Kuytun City People's Procuratorate.

Defendant: Tian Weiguo.

In the Kuytun Public Criminal Prosecution Indictment Document No. 5 [2016], the Kuytun City People's Procuratorate charged the defendant Tian Weiguo with the crime of inciting ethnic hatred, and filed an indictment with this court on January 7, 2016. After accepting the case, this court convened a collegiate panel and held a hearing in open court. The Kuytun City People's Procuratorate appointed Procurator Zhao Xiaobin and Procurator Li Yuzhen to appear in court in support of the indictment. The defendant Tian Weiguo also appeared in court and participated in the procedures. The case has now been concluded.

The Kuytun City People's Procuratorate presented the following charges:

On August 3, 2014, the defendant Tian Weiguo used firewall-circumvention software to register on the overseas website "Google", and reposted false information with the content "Xinjiang Yarkand Uyghurs have been massacred". Afterwards, the defendant Tian Weiguo once again reposted this false information on "Twitter", and at the same time also reposted two other items of information. The first was: "The Yarkand massacre has been tweeted about for so long, the time has come for someone to call for the United Nations to send an investigation team." The second was: "From what I understand of Xinjiang, there may be discrepancies: A leader of a mosque was killed because he cozied up to the Communists and helped the Chinese Communists, but that was not the reason he was killed; some women in Yarkand County went to the mosque during Eid to recite scripture, and the local police / soldiers opened fire and killed some of them, and when their families went to other villages to seek assistance, the Chinese Communists went crazy putting them down, massacring 4-5,000 people in four villages." This information was reposted and stored by a large number of people.

The arraignment decision document and the false information reposted by Tian Weiguo on overseas websites (website screenshots) that were produced by the public prosecutor, as well as the statements and defenses offered by Tian Weiguo, the electronic-evidence forensics report produced by the Ili Prefecture Public Security Bureau, and other relevant evidence, prove the foregoing. Based on this, the public prosecutor believes that defendant Tian Weiguo's actions constitute the crime of inciting ethnic hatred, and requests that punishment be imposed in accordance with the law, recommending that the defendant Tian Weiguo be sentenced to no more than three years’ imprisonment.

Tian Weiguo objects to the public prosecutor’s charge that he incited ethnic hatred and to the facts presented by the prosecutor. His defense is that after initially seeing the posts, he was shocked and curious, and reposted them in order to confirm their veracity. He believes that this does not constitute the crime of inciting ethnic hatred.

An investigation has shown that the defendant Tian Weiguo used firewall-circumvention software on several occasions to access overseas websites, and used his Google account and Twitter account to distribute false information with content that incited ethnic hatred. On August 3, 2014, he used his Google account to publicly share a post with this content: "Xinjiang Yarkand Uyghurs have been massacred." From August 1 to August 3, 2014, he used his Twitter account to subsequently retweet three tweets with the following content: "Xinjiang Yarkand Uyghurs have been massacred.", "The Yarkand massacre has been tweeted about for so long, the time has come for someone to call for the United Nations to send an investigation team.", "From what I understand of Xinjiang, there may be discrepancies: 1. A leader of a mosque was killed because he cozied up to the Communists and helped the Chinese Communists, but that was not the reason he was killed. 2. Some women in Yarkand County went to the mosque during Eid to recite scripture, and the local police / soldiers opened fire and killed some of them, and when their families went to other villages to seek assistance, the Chinese Communists went crazy putting them down, massacring 4-5,000 people in four villages." It was also

determined that the defendant Tian Weiguo’s Google account had 32 followers, and that his Twitter account had 98 followers.

The aforementioned facts were subject to examination and cross examination in court and were verified by the public prosecutor, with the following evidence as the foundations:

1. The written arraignment decision, proving that on July 22, 2015 the Kuytun City Public Security Bureau filed charges against Tian Weiguo for the crime of inciting ethnic hatred.

2. The electronic-evidence forensics collected by the Ili Prefecture Public Security Bureau's Network- Security Defense Force, including website screenshots of the false information reposted by defendant Tian Weiguo on overseas websites, proving that the defendant used his Google account and Twitter account to spread false information that incited ethnic hatred.

3. The statements and defense of defendant Tian Weiguo, proving that the defendant Tian Weiguo confessed to the investigating agencies of the fact that he reposted false information with content inciting ethnic hatred on overseas websites.

4. Expert opinion: The electronic-evidence forensics report produced by the Ili Prefecture Public Security Bureau proves that there were many copies of firewall-circumvention software on his desktop computer, and tests showed a record of it being used to access overseas websites.

The aforementioned evidence was verified and cross-examined in court, with lawful procedures and provenance, the content related to the facts of the case, and each piece of evidence able to confirm the other. They provided valid proof, and are accepted by this court.

This court finds that, on several occasions, the defendant Tian Weiguo used overseas websites to spread false information with content that incited racial hatred, sowed discord between the races, and damaged ethnic unity. His actions constitute the crime of inciting ethnic hatred. The facts are clear and the evidence definitive with respect to the Kuytun City People's Procuratorate's charging the defendant Tian Weiguo with the crime of inciting ethnic hatred. The accusation stands, and is upheld by this court. The defendant Tian Weiguo offered the defense that he only reposted in order to garner evidence, but this court cross-examined the facts of the content of his reposts and that it was viewed by others, and gives these facts credence. Therefore, the defense offered by the defendant Tian Weiguo is not in accordance with the facts in this case, and it is not accepted by this court. In order to strike out at crime, maintain ethnic unity, and ensure that citizens' democratic rights are not infringed, the court’s decision, in accordance with the provisions of Article 249 and Article 61 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, is as follows:

The defendant Tian Weiguo committed the crime of inciting ethnic hatred, and is sentenced to three years’ imprisonment. (The sentence is to be calculated from the date of execution of this verdict, with the sentence to be reduced by one day for each day in custody prior to the execution of this verdict. Therefore, it shall run from July 22, 2015 to July 21, 2018.)

In the case that the defendant does not accept this verdict, he may appeal to this court or directly to the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture Subdivision of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region High People's Court within ten days from the next day of receiving this verdict. In case of written appeal, one copy of the original appeal form and two copies of its facsimile shall be submitted.

Presiding Judge Wang Hongying

Judge Yang Li

Acting Judge Gao Gaiyao

March 24, 2016 Clerk Xu Zhenling