The Intermediate People's Court in the regional capital, Urumqi, sentenced 19-year-old Yilipan Yilihamu to 15 years for inserting a needle into a woman's buttock on Aug. 28, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

A 34-year-old man and a 22-year-old woman were sentenced to 10 years and seven years, respectively, for threatening a taxi driver with a syringe and robbing him of him of 710 yuan ($103) on Aug. 29. The two turned themselves in to police, CCTV said.

China National Radio said all three are members of the Uighur minority, a mostly Muslim, Turkic-speaking ethnic group that is the largest in Xinjiang at 45% of the population.

Tensions in Urumqi have been high since riots in July left nearly 200 dead and exposed rifts between the Uighurs and the Han Chinese, the majority group in China that holds nearly all the important positions of power in Xinjiang.

None of the reported victims of the needle attacks have suffered from illness, poisoning or other effects.

Officials and state media have blamed both the rioting and the attacks on separatists bent on destroying ethnic unity.

Their names suggest all three of those jailed are members of China's Uighur minority, who make up most of the population of Xinjiang. Earlier this month, claims that Uighurs had attacked Han Chinese in Urumqi with syringes led to demonstrations by tens of thousands of Han Chinese.