China: Uyghur scholar gets 10-year imprisonment for promoting separatism, western culture
Mar 10, 2022
Beijing [China], March 10 : A Uyghur professor and translator has been sentenced to 10-year imprisonment in China's Xinjiang for "separatism" and "promoting Western culture", said a media report citing a village official and the convicted man's former Uyghur classmate.
A literature teacher at the School of Philology at Xinjiang Normal University, Nurmemet Omer Uchqun, is serving a 10-year sentence for "marginalizing national culture" and "attempting to split the country," through his writings and translations, Radio Free Asia reported quoting Husenjan, the former classmate who now lives in Norway.
Notably, Uchqun, known for his work in literature, translation, research and computer science, was arrested on the basis of his articles that allegedly endorsed separatism while his translations of Western books became the basis for the charges of promoting Western culture and marginalizing national culture, that is, Chinese culture.
Uchqun was detained by police four years ago in 2017 and later handed over to authorities in Hotan prefecture and transferred to Keriye Prison in Keriye after being sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, Husenjan said, citing the sources inside China.
"My source in China told me in early 2019 that Nurmemet Omer Uchqun was 'sick and being checked at the hospital,' which means that he was arrested and being investigated," the media outlet quoted Husenjan as saying.
"Recently, through (another) source, I learned that Nurmemet was sentenced to 10 years. I heard that in 2017, he was interrogated by police about his writing and translation work," he added.
In a major crackdown on ethnic minorities, Chinese authorities have arrested numerous Uyghur intellectuals, prominent businessmen, and cultural and religious figures in Xinjiang for years, the media outlet reported.
Nearly 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities are said to be held in a network of detention camps in Xinjiang since 2017 allegedly to prevent religious extremism and terrorist activities.
China has been rebuked globally for the crackdown on Uyghur Muslims by sending them to mass detention camps, interfering in their religious activities, and sending members of the community to undergo some form of forcible re-education or indoctrination.
However, Beijing has justified the detentions saying the camps are vocational training centres and denied allegations of torturing people in the camps or mistreating other Muslims living in Xinjiang.
