Three suspects were sentenced to up to 15 years in jail Saturday over syringe stabbings that triggered public scare in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Court hearings on two cases involving the three suspects began at about 10:00 AM at the Municipal Intermediate People's Court of Urumqi and ended at noon.

The court sentenced Yilipan Yilihamu, 19, to 15 years in prison for inserting a pin into a woman's buttock on August 28.

Muhutaerjiang Turdi, a 34-year-old man, and Aimannisha Guli, a 22-year-old woman, was sentenced to 10 years and seven years in jail respectively as they threatened a taxi driver with a syringe and robbed him of 710 yuan on August 29.

(Xinhua News Agency September 12, 2009)