Uyghur Sisters Jailed For ‘Illegal’ Religious Activities in Xinjiang Women’ s Prison

Melikizat and Patigul Memet are among five female family members sentenced in 2013.

By Shohret Hoshur

Two Muslim Uyghur sisters serving lengthy prison sentences for participating in religious gatherings in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region are being held in a women’s prison in the town of Sanji (in Chinese, Changji), detention center officials said.

The siblings, Melikizat and Patigul Memet, are from a family of five women in Korla (in Chinese, Kuerle), all imprisoned for religious activities in 2013, according to a verdict issued in April 2019 and recently seen by RFA. The Korla Municipal Court gave Melikizat and Patigul jail sentences of 20 and seven years, respectively.

The women’s mother, 78-year-old Helchem Pazil, sister Zahire Memet, and sister-in-law Bostan Ibrahim, were convicted of “disturbing public order and inciting ethnic hatred” for “hearing and providing a venue for illegal religious preaching,” RFA reported earlier, citing the document. At the time, it was not clear from the verdict where the women were serving their sentences.

After making additional inquiries about the women, Sanji Women’s Prison staffers told RFA that Melikizat and Patigul were serving their sentences there.

Melikizat, a 37-year-old housewife, was convicted of “incitement to ethnic discrimination,” “collectively bringing social disorder,” and “taking others under her wing,” by providing a venue for religious preaching and taking part in it, according to the verdict.

Patigul, a 52-year-old who worked at a veterinary hospital in Korla’s Tekichi village, was convicted of “collectively bringing social disorder” by attending the religion services. She received a lighter punishment for giving an “early and full confession” and for showing “grave remorse.”

During follow-up calls to local official to try to find out where the women were being held, RFA contacted the police station in Tekichi village, though officers would not provide information about Patigul.

Likewise, the municipal prosecutor’s office in Korla declined RFA’s request to speak with Pezilet Memtimin, the prosecutor in the case.

But during a subsequent call to the office, a staffer said that at least a handful of female Uyghur prisoners from Korla were serving sentences in Sanji Women’s Prison.

When RFA contact the prison, an official asked for the national identification numbers of the five women, then confirmed that Melikizat and Patigul Memet were serving their sentences there.

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

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

Winter Brings New Challenges for Residents living in Ukraine’s Donetsk Region

The front line is continually shifting in the Donetsk region of Eastern Ukraine, and Russian shelling is causing more and more damage to nearby cities.Active fighting is putting residents in danger in Dobropillia, while residents of Kostyantynivka, around 7 kilometers from the contact line, frequently have disruptions in heating fuel.

Read More

Permanent Representative of Israel Briefs Press at UN Headquarters

Danny Danon, Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations, briefs reporters prior to the United Nations Security Council meeting on the Middle East.

Read More

Hospitals Overwhelmed in Vanuatu as Death and Damage Toll Mounts from Quake

Vanuatu on Wednesday took stock of damage from a powerful 7.3 magnitude earthquake that killed at least 14 people and collapsed buildings in the capital, as the first trickle of international assistance began arriving in the disaster-prone Pacific nation.

Read More