Elderly Uyghur Widow Serving 17-Year Term in Xinjiang Women’s Prison

Helchem Pazil is one of five women from the same family who were sentenced in 2019.

By Shohret Hoshur

An elderly Muslim Uyghur woman serving a long jail sentence for participating in religious gatherings in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region is being held in a women’s prison in the town of Sanji (in Chinese, Changji), detention center officials said.

Helchem Pazil, 78, is one of five women from the same family in Korla (in Chinese, Kuerle) who have been imprisoned for religious activities in which they participated in 2013, according to a verdict issued in April 2019 and recently seen by RFA.

They all were retroactively sentenced after China criminalized such activities in 2018 when it issued de-extremification regulations targeting Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other Turkic minorities in Xinjiang, purportedly, to prevent extremist violations and ensure social stability.

RFA reported Monday that Helchem’s daughters, Melikizat and Patigul Memet, are incarcerated in the same prison, serving sentences of 20 and seven years, respectively.

Melikizat was convicted of providing a venue for religious observance and taking part in it, while Patigul was convicted of “collectively bringing social disorder” by attending the services.

Another daughter, Zahire Memet, and a daughter-in-law, Bostan Ibrahim, were convicted of “disturbing public order and inciting ethnic hatred” and for “hearing and providing a venue for illegal religious preaching,” according to the verdict, though it is not clear where they are serving their sentences.

The verdict did not mention the length of the sentence given to Helchem by the Korla Municipal Court.

A day after RFA confirmed that Melikizat and Patigul were being held at the Sanji Women’s Prison, calls to the detention center confirmed that Helchem Pazil was serving her lengthy sentence there as well, though she was placed in a different cell block. Melikizat is housed in cell block No. 3, while Patigul is in cell block No. 6.

After RFA gave the prison official Helchem’s national identification number, the person confirmed the woman’s age and said she was serving a 17-year sentence.

“She is in cell block No. 4,” the official said.

Prior to her arrest, Helchem, a widow with a primary school education, lived in Korla’s Chilanbagh Street neighborhood, according to information in the verdict.

She spent her days taking care of her seven children and grandchildren, said Halchigul Memet, whom the document says led the women in religious discussions and is now living in exile. She spoke to RFA from Turkey.

Helchem was charged with inciting ethnic discrimination, disturbing public order, providing a venue for religious preaching, and attending religious gatherings in a second-floor room of a hotel in Korla’s old bazaar.

Halchigul also told RFA that Helchem visited Turkey in 2015 or 2016 while performing the hajj, a pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, which every adult Muslim who can must make at least once in his or her lifetime.

Translated by the Uyghur Service. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

Copyright © 1998-2020, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036. https://www.rfa.org

Syrians Are Not So Sure for Going Home

More than a million people have sought asylum in European countries over the past  decade as they have fled the civil war in Syria.Now, with the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, some are controversially putting the brakes on new asylum requests.Also,Syrians in Europe are both jubilant  and fearful  about the future as a result of the rapid political changes.

Read More

Golan Heights Druze Welcome New Syrian Rulers

Israel says its forces will not leave the Golan Heights border area until it is certain that the people living there will be safe. Israel has taken control of a buffer zone between Israel and Syria. The Druze, who make up half of these population, are concerned about what will happen to them and their families on the Syrian side of the border after Bashar al-Assad’s government’s fall.syria.

Read More

Tibetans Demand Apology from the British Museum for Use of ‘Xizang’

The British Museum’s use of the term “Xizang” to label Tibetan artifacts in its Silk Roads exhibition has prompted criticism from Tibetans and rights groups who have demanded that the museum remove the Beijing-promoted term and issue a formal apology.

Read More

Escaping from Scam Center on Cambodia’s Bokor Mountain

Young people being deceived into forced labor by criminal gangs, primarily involving illegal work in Chinese-controlled special zones in Cambodia, has become a pressing issue not only in Vietnam but across Southeast Asia.

Read More

UN Security Council Meets to Discuss Children and Armed Conflict

Vanessa Frazier, Permanent Representative of Malta to the United Nations, introduces a resolution at the Security Council meeting on children and armed conflict.

Read More

10 Shocking Revelations from Bangladesh Commission’s Report About Ex-PM Hasina-Linked Forced Disappearances

Macabre killings, casual torture, misdirection and snooping were part of “the anatomy of enforced disappearances” linked to deposed Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, an inquiry commission said in its first report.

Read More

Migration Dynamics Shifting Due to New US Administration New Regional Laws

In 2024, there was a slowdown in the number of migrants traveling from Latin America to the United States, in part due to new policies and controls put in place in the so-called transit countries that migrants pass through on their way north. Migration dynamics are being reshaping by these measures as well as the new U.S. presidential administration’s promises of mass deportations.

Read More

UN Security Council Meets to Discuss the Maintenance of International Peace and Security and Artificial Intelligence

Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State of the United States of America, chairs the United Nations Security Council meeting on Maintenance of International Peace and Security and Artificial Intelligence.

Read More