Uyghur farmer serving 8-year sentence for saving wife from forced abortion dies in jail

Beijing [China], March 16 : A Uyghur farmer, sentenced to eight-year imprisonment for saving his wife from forced abortion, died in jail in 2020, said a media report citing another Uyghur in the know of the development and local police officials.
The Uyghur farmer, namely, Abdureshid Obul moved his pregnant wife from their hometown in Xinjiang to prevent Chinese authorities from forcing her for an abortion in 2012, Radio Free Asia reported citing an Uyghur from the same county who now lives abroad.
Obul, who returned a year after the birth of his baby, was detained by the police and interrogated for a week. He was later released after undergoing "political re-education" and paying a fine of 20,000 yuan for violating the government's family planning policy, according to the source.
Notably, Obul's wife was pregnant with her fourth child when this happened. However, under the government's policy, families hailing from ethnic minorities living in rural areas were allowed to have only two children.
Despite paying the fine, Obul was sent to an internment camp in 2017 when Chinese officials stepped up their crackdown on Uyghurs and reconsidered Obul's action to be a crime deserving harsher punishment, the media outlet reported citing a source.
According to the source, the year witnessed a sudden surge in the enforcement of the family planning policy by the Chinese government.
Obul, who spent two years in the camp, before being sentenced to eight years imprisonment for "religious extremism and disruption of social order" died in prison after serving one year of his sentence, according to the source.
Notably, in recent years, forced abortions have reached record numbers among Uyghurs in the region, the media outlet reported citing observers.
As part of the crackdown on ethnic minorities that primarily began in 2017, the Chinese government implemented population control measures for Uyghurs, including forced sterilizations and abortions.
Uyghur and other Turkic minority women, who have been released after detention in Xinjiang's vast network of internment camps, have reported being raped, tortured, and forced to undergo sterilization surgery, Radio Free Asia reported.
However, China publicly denies that it has committed human rights abuses in Xinjiang.
International reactions have varied. Some United Nations (UN) member states issued statements to the United Nations Human Rights Council condemning China's policies, while others supported China's policies.
The United States was the first country to declare human rights abuses a genocide, announcing its finding on January 19 last year.