Chinese officials sentenced 55 people on terrorism, separatism, and murder charges in a stadium filled with nearly 7,000 attendees on Tuesday, ABC News reported.
The event held in Urumqi, the regional capital of Xinjiang, follows an attack at a vegetable market last week that left 43 people dead.
Though the use of public sentencing -- meant to humiliate the accused and ease the desire for vengeance from the public -- were only used in the past, recent unrest in the region has caused Chinese authorities to result back to their old ways.
Footage provided by Yili Television, a local broadcaster, showed defendants dressed in orange vests, standing around trucks parked in rows on the stadium's running track. They bowed their heads as police officers handed out verdicts.
Prisoners sentenced to death had used weapons to murder a family member last year "using extremely cruel methods," according to The BBC.
Officials from the Yili branch of the Xinjiang High Court also announced the arrests and detentions of 65 people for charges including separatism, covering up crimes, and rape, according to the Xinhua News Agency.
On Tuesday, authorities in southwestern Xinjiang reportedly foiled a bomb plot and arrested five people. Additionally, the government claims to have detained over 200 people and broken up 23 extremists groups, though details on the crackdown are not available.
Sophie Richardson, China Director at the Human Rights Watch, criticized the stadium sentencing on Twitter.
"A mass sentencing rally in Xinjiang--about as antithetical to the rule of law as a government can get," Richardson tweeted.
