BEIJING Thu Jul 10, 2014 11:53pm EDT
(Reuters) - China sentenced 32 people in its western Xinjiang region to prison terms for downloading or sending "violent terror" videos, state media said, as authorities crackdown on people they say are Islamists and separatists behind recent attacks.
Three people were given life sentences on Thursday and 29 people were sentenced to between four and 15 years in prison, said the region's official government news website Tianshan.
"The cases generally involved using mobile phones and the Internet to store, download, and transmit religious extremist violent terror video and audio files to organize, lead or participate in terrorist organizations," Tianshan said.
China has taken down more than 40 groups it calls "violent terror gangs" and arrested more than 400 people in Xinjiang since authorities began a one-year crackdown on May 23, state media said on Monday.
Thursday's sentences are the latest effort by China to rein in groups it says are responsible for a series of bloody attacks that Beijing blames on Islamists and separatists from the Xinjiang region, home to a large Muslim Uighur minority.
