A Bangkok court on Thursday acquitted a Thai woman accused of supporting two Chinese ethnic Uyghur men suspected of carrying out a 2015 bombing that killed 20 people at a Hindu shrine popular with tourists from China.
Authorities in Xinjiang have banned Uyghurs from using social media apps, including Chinese-owned TikTok and tools to circumvent censorship, with violators facing fines or arrest.
Erkin Tewekkul, a Uyghur biology teacher at a school in Xinjiang’s capital Urumqi, stood out among his peers for his excellent communication and leadership skills.But police arrested him later that year and sentenced him to 12 years in prison, the sources said.
A prominent Uyghur who published books about Uyghur cultural identity and China’s persecution of the Uyghurs has been sentenced to prison, according to a Norway-based foundation and officials in Xinjiang.
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.
“Home” means different things to young Uyghurs – some of whom may have not even visited their ancestral homeland in China’s far western Xinjiang region.
The disregard of human rights by many governments in pursuit of short-term strategic goals is “emboldening” abusive regimes around the world and contributing to global instability in the long term, this year’s annual world report by Human Rights Watch says.
Uyghurs marked the one-year anniversary of a deadly fire in Xinjiang’s capital Urumqi with vigils over the weekend, demanding accountability for the tragedy that they say killed as many as 44 people, four times higher than the official death toll of 10.
Pakistani authorities began conducting unexpected house raids on the homes of Uyghurs living in Rawalpindi just before a government order to expel all illegal migrants who had not left the country by the start of November took effect, according to Uyghurs involved in the matter.
A young Uyghur businessman who was reportedly arrested in 2016 on vague separatist charges has been serving a 15-year prison sentence since 2017 for illegal religious activities, a police officer in China’s northwestern Xinjiang province confirmed to Radio Free Asia.