Three people were sentenced in western China on Saturday to up to 15 years in prison in the first trials stemming from a series of syringe attacks.
The three, all ethnic Uighurs, were sentenced by the Intermediate People's Court in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang region, state media reported.
Some 500 people have reported being attacked in Urumqi, but only about 100 have showed evidence of being pricked. None has suffered from illness, poisoning or other effects.
Members of the People's Liberation Army medical team said they conducted checks on 22 patients who showed clear signs of having been stabbed and found no indication that radioactive or biochemical substances had been used in any of the attacks.
Earlier this month, tens of thousands from China's ethnic Han majority took to the streets of the city demanding that the government improve security.
The needle attacks raised tensions almost two months after riots left nearly 200 dead and exposed rifts between the native Uighur minority and Han Chinese.
Officials say five people died in this month's protests and 48 people were detained as suspects in the needle attacks, according to state media.
The court on Saturday sentenced a 19-year-old man to 15 years in prison for inserting a needle into a woman's buttock on Aug. 26, a notice on the official China Court Web site said.
In a separate hearing, the court also sentenced a 34-year-old man and a 22-year-old woman to 10 years and seven years, respectively, for robbery after they threatened a taxi driver with a syringe and stole money from him on Aug. 29.
The official Xinhua News Agency said all three are Uighurs, a mostly Muslim, Turkic-speaking ethnic group that is the largest in Xinjiang, at 45 per cent of the population.
Officials and state media have blamed Uighur separatists bent on destroying ethnic unity for both the deadly July rioting and the syringe attacks.
