A netizen, who was said to be a key member of the World Uygur Congress (WUC), was blamed by Chinese authorities for fanning ethnic confrontation that caused the deadly July 5 riot in Urumqi by spreading a fake video online, state news agency Xinhua reported on Wednesday.

The netizen, named Mukadaisi, spread a video titled a Uygur girl beaten to deathon an Internet group of Uygurs of qq.com on July 3, 2009, two days before the deadly riot in Xinjiang.

Mukadaisi said the video about a girl in red being beaten to death by a group of people using stones, was a Uygur girl beaten to death by the Han people, which sparked a lot of anger amongst (Western) Uyghurs.

In the Internet group, the man urged Uygur people to fight back with violence and repay blood with blood.

However, the video, was originally broadcast by the CNN in May 2007, as something happened in the Mosul city of Iraq on April 7, 2007.

Chinese authorities said their investigations found that the man was a key member of the WUC in Germany and his fake video fanned ethnic confrontation and added fuel to the fire.

Iraq China