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Uyghur journalist and webmaster Gheyret Niyaz sentenced
to 15 years |
Press Releases
For immediate release
July 23, 2010, 5:00 pm EST
Contact: Uyghur American Association +1 (202) 535 0037
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23 July 2010
According to media reports, Uyghur journalist and
webmaster Gheyret Niyaz was sentenced to 15 years in
prison today (July 23) for endangering state security by
speaking to foreign journalists. Niyaz reportedly
informed government officials about plans for
demonstrations that had been posted on websites prior to
unrest that occurred on July 5, 2009 in Urumchi, the
regional capital of East Turkestan, and later criticized
the government’s handling of the unrest. The Uyghur
American Association (UAA) believes the harsh sentence
represents the Chinese government’s policy of no
tolerance for any type of Uyghur dissent, as well as the
government’s campaign to tightly control the flow of
information and stem public criticism of official
policy.
“China’s harsh sentencing of Gheyret Niyaz indicates
that even Uyghurs with government ties are not allowed
to voice opinions contradicting the official government
line,” said Uyghur democracy leader Rebiya Kadeer.
“Since even Niyaz was handed a 15-year sentence for
speaking according to his conscience, I fear for the
fate of the many other Uyghur bloggers and journalists
detained after July 5 who have yet to be tried and
sentenced. Gulmire Imin, a young woman who worked for
the website Salkin, was already sentenced to life in
prison in April 2010 for expressing herself online. What
will happen to the many other Uyghurs who are
languishing in jail cells for simply exercising their
freedom of speech?”
Niyaz was reportedly sentenced following a one-day trial
in Urumchi, which only one family member, his wife
Risalet, was allowed to attend. Risalet was quoted in
media reports as saying that Niyaz insisted in court
that he had broken no laws, and that he said he had
acted in good conscience as a citizen and a journalist.
Risalet stated that during Niyaz’s trial, prosecutors
presented essays Niyaz had written and used interviews
he gave to foreign media in the wake of July 2009 unrest
in Urumchi as evidence that he was guilty of endangering
state security. Some observers believe Niyaz was
arrested primarily because of an interview he gave to
the Hong Kong publication Yazhou Zhoukan (亞洲週刊) in which
he criticized officials’ handling of the unrest.
“Chinese authorities have silenced Uyghur accounts of
the killings of Uyghur demonstrators in Urumchi during
the July 2009 unrest,” said Ms. Kadeer. “They have even
criminalized the examination of the government policies
that led to the unrest. The Chinese government must
allow a full and open examination of the unrest that
took place, including the accounts of all witnesses to
the unrest. Until this is allowed, tensions in the
region will only worsen.”
Niyaz was not allowed to choose his own defense
attorney. According to Chinese law, he has the right to
appeal the verdict against him, but it is unknown
whether he will exercise this right.
Prior to his arrest and detention in October 2009, Niyaz
worked as a senior reporter for the Xinjiang Economic
Daily and as an administrator for the website “Uighurbiz”
(Uighur Online). The website, founded by Uyghur
economist and blogger Ilham Tohti, was created as a
multi-lingual forum for news and dialogue between
Uyghurs, Han and other ethnicities on ethnic issues and
other topics. The website has been shut down a number of
times by Chinese government authorities, and is
currently hosted on a server in the United States.
Both Tohti and Niyaz have publicly criticized official
economic policies and official policies toward Uyghurs
in East Turkestan, although Niyaz is widely viewed as
primarily holding pro-government views. Niyaz’s writings
specifically targeted the government’s policy of
removing Uyghur as a language of instruction in East
Turkestan’s schools, as well as government initiatives
to send young Uyghur women to eastern China to work in
poor conditions. Tohti was repeatedly detained and
harassed throughout 2009 and the first half of 2010 for
his outspoken criticism, and was recently barred from
traveling to Turkey to attend an academic conference.
The Associated Press (AP) cited a 2008 interview with
Niyaz in which he stated that he had been forced into
semi-retirement from his job at the Xinjiang Economic
Daily due to an article he wrote criticizing Wang Lequan,
who was then the Communist Party Secretary of Xinjiang.
Niyaz was cited as having told AP that stability was
placed above all else in East Turkestan.
“You are either being praised or promoted for
contributing to it or being arrested for harming it,”
Niyaz told AP. “It’s love or hate and there’s no room
for uncertainty, no third road.”
Niyaz is one of a number of Uyghur journalists,
webmasters and bloggers to be detained in the wake of
the July 2009 unrest. The owners and staff of many
Uyghur websites were accused by the government of having
promoted “separatism” or “splittism”.
Chinese officials accused Uighurbiz and other Uyghur-run
websites, including Salkin and Diyarim, of inciting
protests and violence on July 5, 2009 because in the
days leading up to July 5, they had announced plans for
the July 5 peaceful demonstration that took place at
People’s Square. In a televised speech on July 6, 2009,
regional chairman Nur Bekri specifically accused
Uighurbiz of having been a catalyst for violence on July
5, which he said the website had helped to instigate by
“spreading rumors”.
On April 1, 2010, 32-year-old website administrator
Gulmire Imin was sentenced to life in prison for the
crimes of “revealing state secrets”, illegally
organizing a demonstration, and “splittism”. Imin was
sentenced on the same day as being tried in a closed
trial. She was invited to become an administrator for
the website Salkin after having published a number of
poems on various Uyghur websites. Imin was arrested on
July 14, 2009, but her family did not receive any
official documents regarding her detention.
The founder of the website Salkin, who goes by the name
Nureli, was also detained after July 5, 2009 and remains
in detention, as do the following website staff and
bloggers: Memet Turghun Abdulla, a photographer who
published an article online about attacks against
Uyghurs that took place in Shaoguan, Guangdong Province,
on June 26, 2009; Dilshat Parhat, who co-founded the
website Diyarim; Obulkasim, an employee of Diyarim; and
website supervisor Muhemmet. No reports have been made
public regarding any charges filed against these
individuals, and it is unclear where they are being
held. |
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