ANKARA

A Chinese court has sentenced an Uighur man to six years in prison for “provoking trouble” by growing a beard, local media reported.

A court in the city of Kashgar in China’s mainly Muslim Xinjiang region also gave the 38-year-old man's wife a two-year prison sentence for wearing a veil hiding her face and a burqa, according to local newspapers.

The unidentified Uighur couple was found guilty of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” the Xinjiang Economic Daily reported Sunday, citing local officials.

The couple had received several warnings before being charged, they said, adding that the man had started growing his beard in 2010.

“Since the beginning of the year, a certain number of people breaking the regulation on beards, veils and burqas have been prosecuted and sentenced," court officials were quoted as saying.

Growing a beard is widely discouraged by Chinese authorities, which claim that the practice is linked to extremism.