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- India and Pakistan have agreed to a ceasefire.
- China held the first China-Central Asia Education Ministers' Meeting in Urumqi.
- For the first time in Türkiye Turkey's National Intelligence Organization arrested seven Chinese nationals for espionage activities
- China raises concerns about military training sites in East Turkistan
- US and China agree to slash tariffs for 90 days
- China-Syria Relations and the Uyghur Issue
- Companies Like "International Hotel Groups" Face Severe Ethical Scrutiny in East Turkistan
- European Parliament adopts resolution on Tibet
- Europe announces establishment of tribunal for Russia's crimes of aggression
Uyghur imam, 96, dies in prison
A 96-year-old Uyghur religious leader who was arrested in 2017 has died in prison, and authorities did not turn his body over to his family, his granddaughter told Radio Free Asia.
Abidin Damollam was an imam who served in a mosque in Qayraq village in Atush, the capital of the Qizilsu Kyrgyz in East Turkistan.
He was arrested in June 2017 on charges of “promoting religious extremism” and sentenced to nine years in prison.
His granddaughter Mariya Muhemmed, who lives in the United States, told RFA Uyghur that Damollam passed away on Feb. 5 inside Atush’s Aghu prison.
“Our grandfather was the imam of a mosque in Qayraq for 30 years and educated children in religion,” she said.
“In May 2017, he was arrested and has been serving in a large prison in Aghu, where they detain political prisoners. Many people are there,” she said. “Our grandpa passed away there and his body was not returned to the family.”
Imams in East Turkistan (Xinjiang) are appointed by the Chinese government, and part of their duties are to provide religious instruction to students with government approval. Therefore, Damollam was arrested for doing what the government appointed him to do, his family said.
According to Muhemmed, prison authorities froze Damollam’s body and two days later transferred it to the Atush Police Department who buried him in a cemetery instead of returning the body to the family.
RFA attempted to verify the circumstances of Damollam’s passing and burial with relevant authorities.
An officer at the Suntagh police station did not have any knowledge of Damollam, saying that there were “several thousand people with the same name.”
Damollam had been a target of authorities during the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution and had to endure public humiliation in the era’s notorious struggle sessions multiple times.
He was also detained several times in the 1990s whenever there was political unrest in the region, his family said, but they were not able to confirm how many times or for what reasons he was detained.
https://www.rfa.org/