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Uyghur Student Sentenced to Death |
RFA
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A female Uyghur student in northwestern China was
sentenced to death with a two-year suspension following
a trial last April on charges of participating in ethnic
riots that left hundreds dead, according to a classmate.
Pezilet Ekber became the second Uyghur woman to receive
the death penalty in connection to the unrest. Another
woman was executed by Chinese authorities earlier this
year.
“Nobody knows what exactly led to Pezilet Ekber
receiving such a heavy punishment, other than her
‘involvement in violence,’ because the trial was secret
and her parents were only just informed of the
decision,” her classmate, who asked to remain anonymous,
wrote in a letter.
“After the trial, her parents were just given the
judgment, and were warned to keep silent and to refrain
from telling the content of judgment to anyone,” the
letter said.
Pezilet Ekber, 19, had been enrolled in Russian language
classes at Xinjiang University in the Xinjiang Uyghur
Autonomous Region (XUAR) capital of Urumqi just before
the violence erupted, her classmate wrote.
But she had temporarily left the school because of her
family’s financial difficulties and was working for a
Han Chinese-owned business in the city’s Grand Bazaar as
a translator and saleswoman at the time of the riots,
the letter said.
Urumqi’s Grand Bazaar was one of the locations central
to Uyghur demonstrations and violence during the July 5,
2009 riots, which left nearly 200 people dead, according
to official Chinese estimates.
Pezilet Ekber was arrested two months after the unrest
while visiting her parents in her hometown of Suydung,
in the XUAR’s Qorghas [in Chinese, Huocheng] county, Ili
prefecture.
In the letter, Pezilet Ekber’s classmate wrote that the
two had met on July 4 last year, and that her friend had
no plans to attend the demonstration the following day.
“Her workplace was at the center of the event so she was
probably unable to keep herself away when she saw the
demonstrators and witnessed the tragic event of the
demonstrators being shot by police,” the letter said.
“She usually always took a careful approach to such
subjects related to the ethnic problem, even if it was a
class discussion, because of her family background—being
the granddaughter of a former independence fighter.”
A concerned father
Pezilet Ekber’s father, Ekber, 45, was a former state
security officer in Qorghas county, but was forced out
of his job due to his family background when ethnic
tension began to build in the XUAR in the late 1990s.
Her grandfather had served in Ili prefecture's Gulja
city as a member of the East Turkestan Liberation Army
shortly after its founding in 1944, seeking independence
from China.
A friend of Mr. Ekber, reached by telephone, said he had
traveled to Urumqi on April 16 to visit his daughter in
detention, but police ordered him to leave the city
within a day of his arrival.
“He left without seeing his daughter. It happened just a
few days before Pezilet’s trial,” the friend said.
“After that, I never saw him again—I guess it was in
order keep his daughter’s life safe. Now he has isolated
himself from the public to avoid leaking ‘state
secrets.’ I don’t know whether or not he was able to
visit his daughter after the trial.”
Pezilet Ekber’s boss at the shop in the Grand Bazar, a
man surnamed Zhang, briefly answered questions about her
detention and subsequent trial.
When asked if Pezilet Ekber was available to speak,
Zhang said she hadn’t worked at the store since
September.
When asked when she would return to work, he answered,
“My guess is that will never happen,” but hung up the
phone before responding to questions about why she was
unable to return.
Employees who answered the phone at the Urumqi
Intermediate Court, which handed down the punishment to
Pezilet Ekber, and the Ghalibiyet Police Station, which
ordered her father to leave Urumqi in April, both
refused to speak with reporters.
Family a factor?
Ilshat Hassan, U.S.-based spokesman for the World Uyghur
Congress, said Pezilet Ekber may have been singled out
by the court due to her family history.
“Usually family background is the most considered factor
at the time of a decision, especially in political and
ethnic cases tried by Chinese courts,” Hassan said.
“A Communist-oriented family background might save your
life, even if you are a murderer, while an
anti-communist or pro-independence family background can
lead to a death sentence, even if you are innocent,” he
said.
“I think Pezilet Ekber’s family background was one of
the factors which influenced the decision.”
Pezilet Ekber is the second woman known to receive the
death penalty in the aftermath of the Urumqi unrest,
according to information made public by Chinese
authorities.
In January, Hayrinsa Sawut, 20, was executed for
committing murder during the riots.
A third woman, Gulmire Imin, received life in prison for
her role as an “illegal organizer” during the 2009
demonstrations.
Reported and translated by Shohret Hoshur for RFA’s
Uyghur service. Written in English by Joshua Lipes. |
| Reported by Shohret Hoshur for RFA’s
Uyghur service. Translated by Dolkun Kamberi. Written in
English by Richard Finney. |
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