Nefise, 20, who lives in Turkey, took to social media in April, where she shared video of herself holding a portrait of her uncle and speaking about his case and what she called genocide of Uyghurs in western China. She spoke in Uyghur, English, Mandarin and Turkish.

Police in Urumqi, capital of western China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, arrested her uncle, Alim Abdukerim at his home on Aug. 28, 2017. He is now 33.

It was not clear why he was arrested, but in that year Beijing had begun a large-scale crackdown, arbitrarily detaining Uyghur businesspeople, writers, artists, athletes and Muslim clergy members into “re-education” camps. 

China has claimed that the camps were vocation training centers set up to prevent religious extremism and terrorism in the mostly Muslim region. But those who survived the camps say Uyghurs there were subjected to torture, sexual assault and forced labor.

Abdukerim’s family did not know his whereabouts for two years, though Oghuz later obtained information that he was in prison in Korla, known as Ku’erle in Chinese and the second-largest city in Xinjiang, two years after he was taken away.

Bits of information

In mid-July, the Chinese government finally responded to queries from Oghuz.

“The Chinese government responded back to my email. They wrote that they will contact me. Then they called me,” she said. "During the phone call … we asked why he is in prison, and how long he has been in prison. They said they will get back to us and were nice in the beginning.”

She said that they called every day asking for updates.

“The person from the consulate also said someone was sent to Urumqi to get an update but there was no news. We waited for about 3 months.”

According to Oghuz, after three months, a consular official told Oghuz over the phone that Alim Abdukérim was serving a sentence in prison and hung up the phone, telling her not to contact them again. The official vaguely stated that he had been sentenced to more than 10 years and did not provide any information on the reason for his arrest.

RFA contacted the Bahuliang Police Station in Urumqi, which had handled Alim Abdukérim’s arrest for clarification but an officer there stressed that the case is a sensitive one and refused to give any information about it.

Oghuz also learned from sources with knowledge of the situation that Alim Abdukérim was serving a sentence in Korla prison and was sentenced to 17 years for endangering national security. Those sources said that after Nefise disclosed the situation to the international media, her relatives in her hometown Peyziwat Misha were interrogated by local police officers and faced some trouble.

RFA contacted Misha police station in Peyziwat for more clarification. An officer there explained that Abdukérim was sentenced for “having relations with illegal religious figures.”

Another officer connected to the case told RFA a slightly different story, that Alim Abdukérim was about 25 or 26 years old and had different reasons for sentencing.

“He watched illegal content,” the other officer said. “Other reasons for the verdict are that he also contacted on the phone with problematic people, such as his relatives in Turkey. Even if the relatives in Turkey are not involved in anything, it can still be a factor.”

Oghuz said she doubted the stated reasons for arrest and sentencing.

“We all know that it never means that he actually committed a crime or did something wrong worth the arrest,” she said, adding that China often conceals the real reason for arresting Uyghurs. 

“The genocide,” she said. “Everyone is arrested for such reasons by the Chinese government. Therefore, we will do anything for the freedom of my uncle.”

Translated by Alim Seytoff. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster. 

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Shohret Hoshur for RFA Uyghur.

At around 2:30 p.m. on November 9, around 20 men, allegedly members of the ruling Awami League party’s student wing Chhatra League, beat Alim, a reporter for the online news portal Rajshahi Post, and Rony, a correspondent for the online newspaper Bangladesh Journal, on the Rajshahi College campus in western Bangladesh, according to privately owned news website New Age, the local press freedom group Bangladeshi Journalists in International Media, and Alim, who spoke with CPJ.

“Bangladeshi authorities and the Rajshahi College administration must immediately hold accountable those who attacked student journalists Abdul Alim and Abu Sayed Rony while reporting on the university campus,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator, from Washington, D.C. “The government must take action against the deeply disturbing trend of the Chhatra League’s violence against student journalists on their campuses.”

The journalists were filming an argument between the university vice-principal along with professors and the men, who were led by undergraduate mathematics student Masud Rana, a Chhatra League member who was not permitted to take an examination after repeatedly missing class, according to those sources.

The men recognized Rony, an undergraduate mathematics student, as a journalist, but not Alim, an undergraduate history student, Alim told CPJ.

The men then beat and slapped the journalists, grabbed their collars, and repeatedly pushed them into a wall before they fell unconscious and woke up in the teachers’ lounge. The journalists were taken to the hospital, where Alim was treated for a blood clot in his back and significant bruising throughout his body, and Rony for a severe head inquiry, Alim said.

Following the attack, the journalists learned the perpetrators took their phones, which were returned to them broken, Alim said. Rony did not immediately respond to CPJ’s messages.

The Chhatra League leadership on campus subsequently suspended eight members for their alleged involvement in the attack. University officials have also appointed a committee to investigate the incident, Alim said.

Rony filed a complaint about the attack at the Boalia Police Station, but it was unclear whether a formal investigation had been opened, Alim said, adding that no suspects had been apprehended by the university or police as of November 13.

Rana and the officer-in-charge of the Boalia Police Station did not immediately respond to CPJ’s messages.

On September 24, around 15 to 20 alleged members of the Chhatra League beat student journalist Mosharrof Shah on the University of Chittagong campus.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.