Director Ikram Nurmemmet has been sentenced to 6.5 years on terrorism charges

According to our previous investigations, Ikram Nurmemmet, a young director living in Beijing and working in Tianjin, was arrested in Beijing in mid-last year and tried in Urumqi at the end of the year. His arrest and trial were reportedly due to "issues" that arose during his studies at Marmara University in Turkey and while working for Turkish film companies several years earlier. Our investigations at the time also revealed that four of Ikram's friends who had associated with him during his time in Turkey were also tried, and they were charged with forming and joining a terrorist group.
According to The Guardian in England, which first reported on this trial, Ikram and his friends were subjected to severe torture during interrogation, and all except Ikram were forced to confess to their "crimes"; the court postponed the verdict at that time.
A person familiar with the situation informed our radio station last week that the court verdict was issued in January this year. In the verdict, Ikram and his friends were sentenced separately to prison terms ranging from 5 to 6.5 years. Ikram, considered the leader of the "criminal" group, was sentenced to 6.5 years. An employee of the Urumqi Intermediate Court who answered our phone call confirmed that Ikram Nurmemmet had been sentenced to 6.5 years.
According to the person familiar with the situation, Ikram Nurmemmet's wife in Beijing and his mother in Urumqi were kept uninformed about the court verdict. Although Ikram Nurmemmet wanted to appeal the decision, he was unable to take advantage of the three-month appeal period stipulated in Chinese law due to the lack of an independent lawyer and his inability to contact his family.
Another police officer who answered our call revealed that although a verdict had been reached in Ikram Nurmemmet's case, he had not yet been transferred to prison and was still being held in detention. Our previous investigations had shown that due to the lack of space in prisons across most of the Uyghur region, convicts were being kept in detention centers; Because conditions in detention centers are worse than in prisons, some convicts were reportedly forced to confess to their "crimes" just to be transferred out of detention.
Our investigations last year revealed that during his studies in Turkey, Ikram Nurmemmet had kept his distance from the Uyghur community there to avoid actions that might provoke China, even avoiding sharing dormitories with other Uyghur students. Despite these precautions, he was unable to escape China's suspicion.
In our current investigations, while it has been confirmed that his four friends were also sentenced, their exact identities remain unclear.
Above, we reported on the 6.5-year sentence given to director Ikram Nurmemmet, who had been working in advertising and short documentary filmmaking in Tianjin.