Alimjan Yimit

Last updated

Alimjan Yimit, (also written as Alimujiang Yimiti) is a Uyghur house church clergyman. [1]

Contents

History

The Kashi Municipal Bureau for Ethnic Religious Affairs ordered that Alimujiang's license to operate his business, Xinjiang Jiaerhao Foodstuff Company, be revoked on 13 September 2007 for "[using the business] as a cover to preach Christianity among people of Uyghur ethnicity". [2] [3]

Alimujiang was arrested on 12 January 2008 and sentenced to 15 years incarceration for allegedly instigating separatism and stealing, penetrating, purchasing and illegally providing state secrets to overseas organizations and individuals. [4] [5] [6] [7]

Those close to Alimujiang claim that there is no proof of wrongdoing and that agricultural workers such as Alimujiang do not have access to state secrets. [8]

Summary of events

The following train of events is chronicled by Open Doors, a non-denominational Christian organization dedicated to raising awareness of global persecution of Christians. [9]

  1. Alimjan had a business, the Xinjiang Jiaerhao Foodstuff Company Ltd. Because of Alimjan's association with two foreign-owned companies, officials from the State Security Bureau often called him in for interrogations. His house began to be searched and his personal computer was seized. Alimjan also complained that he had been physically abused to the bureau's headquarters in Ürümqi. His complaint was not addressed.
  2. On 13 September 2007, the authorities closed down Alimjan's business and accused him of using it as a front for "preaching Christianity among people of Uyghur."
  3. On 12 January 2008, Alimjan was arrested on a so-called national security issue, and held at Kashgar Detention Centre.
  4. Alimjan was threatened with a range possible sentences, from six years in prison to execution.
  5. According to his lawyer, conditions in detention have been so harsh that it has affected Alimjan's health. It has also been reported that he was much respected in the Detention Centre.
  6. On 20 February 2008, charges against Alimjan were changed to 'inciting secessionist sentiment to split the country', and 'collecting and selling intelligence for overseas organizations'. The question of how an agricultural worker such as Alimjan could have had access to classified information has still not been addressed.
  7. At a hearing on 27 May 2008, the Xinjiang Court cited 'insufficient evidence' as reason for returning the case to state prosecutors.
  8. On 12 September 2008, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, in its Opinion 29/2008, ruled that the arrest and detention of Alimjan was arbitrary and in violation of international law. The Working Group concluded that Alimjan was detained because of his faith and requested that the government correct the situation.
  9. In September 2008 Public Security Bureau officials returned the case to State prosecutors.
  10. In October 2008 State Prosecutors sent the case back to the court.
  11. On 28 July 2009, Alimjan was tried secretly at Kashi District Intermediate People's Court in Xinjiang for 'collecting and selling intelligence for overseas organisations'. This was Alimjan's first hearing since being detained for a year and a half and is contrary to China criminal law.
  12. On 27 October 2009, according to CAA, Alimjan was read his verdict. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Mr. Li Dunyong, one of Alimjan's lawyers, subsequently lodged an appeal.
  13. On 16 March 2010 the People's High Court upheld the original verdict. According to CAA, Alimjan's lawyers, Li Baiguang and Liu Peifu, appealed to the Beijing Supreme Court, but after reconsidering his case, they ruled to uphold the sentence of 15 years of imprisonment.
  14. Dunyong was among the lawyers who did not get the annual renewal of his bar registration in May 2009. Another lawyer who defended Alimjan also lost his license when Chinese authorities turned down his annual application for renewal. Dunyong said that "The key for this case was the flawed Certificate for the Evidence," verified by the Bureau of Conservative Secrets. According to Dunyong, in both form and content the certificate was questionable. Furthermore, it had no signature by the verifier at the Bureau, contrary to Chinese law.
  15. Dunyong confirmed that "religion lies at the heart of this case." Friends of Alimjan also said they believe the true reason for his arrest is his faith.

See also

Related Research Articles

Human rights in China are periodically reviewed by the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC), on which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and various foreign governments and human rights organizations have often disagreed. CCP and PRC authorities, their supporters, and other proponents claim that existing policies and enforcement measures are sufficient to guard against human rights abuses. However, other countries and their authorities, international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) including Human Rights in China and Amnesty International, and citizens, lawyers, and dissidents inside the country, state that the authorities in mainland China regularly sanction or organize such abuses.

Huang Qi is a Chinese webmaster and human rights activist. He is the co-founder of Tianwang Center for Missing Persons, along with his wife Zeng Li. Initially the mission of the organization was to help counter human trafficking that had become a swelling problem in the late 1990s, but later it was expanded to include campaign against human rights abuse. Huang is also the owner and webmaster of 64tianwang.com, a website originally intended to release news about people who had disappeared in the People's Republic of China.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gao Zhisheng</span> Chinese human rights lawyer

Gao Zhisheng is a Chinese human rights attorney and dissident known for defending activists and religious minorities and documenting human rights abuses in China. Because of his work, Zhisheng has been disbarred and detained by the Chinese government several times, and severely tortured. He last disappeared in February 2009 and was unofficially detained until December 2011, when it was announced that he has now been imprisoned for three years. His commitment to defending his clients is influenced by his Christian beliefs and their tenets on morality and compassion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kashgar Prefecture</span> Prefecture in Xinjiang, China

Kashgar Prefecture, also known as Kashi Prefecture, is located in southwestern Xinjiang, China, located in the Tarim Basin region. It has an area of 112,057 km2 (43,265 sq mi) and 4,496,377 inhabitants at the 2020 census with a population density of 35.5 inhabitants/km2. The capital of the prefecture is the city of Kashgar which has a population 506,640.

Adel Noori is a Uyghur refugee who was wrongly imprisoned for more than 7 years in the Guantanamo Bay detention camps in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 584. Joint Task Force Guantanamo counter-terrorism analysts report that he was born on November 12, 1979, in Xinjiang, China.

Abdullah Abdulqadirakhun is a Uyghur refugee, who was held for more than seven years in Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.

Starting in 2002, the American government detained 22 Uyghurs in the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp. The last 3 Uyghur detainees, Yusef Abbas, Hajiakbar Abdulghupur and Saidullah Khali, were released from Guantanamo on December 29, 2013, and later transferred to Slovakia.

Edham Mamet is a Uyghur refugee best known for the more than seven years he spent in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. He was captured in Afghanistan in November 2001. Edham Mamet is one of the 22 Uighurs held in Guantanamo for many years despite the fact that it became clear early on that they were innocent.

The Zirve Publishing House murders, called the missionary massacres by Turkish media, took place on April 18, 2007, in Zirve Publishing House, Malatya, Turkey. Three employees of the Bible publishing house were attacked, tortured, and murdered by five Muslim assailants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nur Bekri</span> Chinese politician

Nur Bekri is a Chinese former politician of Uyghur ethnicity, best known for his term as Chairman of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region between 2008 and 2014. Between 2014 and 2018, he was vice-chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission and Director of the National Energy Administration, with rank equivalent of a minister. Bekri was one of the highest ranked ethnic minority officials in the Chinese government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chen Shui-bian corruption charges</span>

Chen Shui-bian, former President of the Republic of China, stepped down on May 20, 2008, the same day that Ma Ying-jeou took office as the new President of the Republic of China. About an hour after he left the Presidential Office Building, as a former President of the Republic of China and no longer enjoying presidential immunity, he was arrested and restricted from leaving the nation by Taiwanese prosecutors due to allegations of corruption and abuse of authority. Chen was accused of fraud in a case involving the handling of a special presidential fund used to pursue Taiwan's foreign diplomacy. However, the Special Investigation Division dropped money-laundering charges because of a lack of evidence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">July 2009 Ürümqi riots</span> Protest events in Xinjiang, China

A series of violent riots over several days broke out on 5 July 2009 in Ürümqi, the capital city of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), in northwestern China. The first day's rioting, which involved at least 1,000 Uyghurs, began as a protest, but escalated into violent attacks that mainly targeted Han people. According to Chinese state media, a total of 197 people died, most of whom were Han people or non-Muslim minorities, with 1,721 others injured and many vehicles and buildings destroyed. Many Uyghurs disappeared during wide-scale police sweeps in the days following the riots; Human Rights Watch (HRW) documented 43 cases and said figures for real disappearances were likely to be much higher.

The Shaoguan incident was a civil disturbance which took place overnight on 25–26 June 2009 in Guangdong, China. A violent dispute erupted between migrant Uyghurs and Han Chinese workers at a toy factory in Shaoguan as a result of false allegations of the sexual assault of a Han Chinese woman. Groups of Han Chinese set upon Uyghur co-workers, leading to at least two Uyghurs being violently killed by angry Han Chinese men, and some 118 people injured, most of them Uyghurs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ilham Tohti</span> Chinese economist and activist

Ilham Tohti is a Uyghur economist serving a life sentence in China, on separatism-related charges. He is a vocal advocate for the implementation of regional autonomy laws in China, was the host of Uyghur Online, a website founded in 2006 that discusses Uyghur issues, and is known for his research on Uyghur-Han relations. Ilham was summoned from his Beijing home and detained shortly after the July 2009 Ürümqi riots by the authorities because of his criticism of the Chinese government's policies toward Uyghurs in Xinjiang. Ilham was released on August 23 after international pressure and condemnation. He was arrested again in January 2014 and imprisoned after a two-day trial. For his work in the face of adversity he was awarded the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award (2014), the Martin Ennals Award (2016), the Václav Havel Human Rights Prize (2019), and the Sakharov Prize (2019). Ilham is viewed as a moderate and believes that Xinjiang should be granted autonomy according to democratic principles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geoffrey Nice</span> British barrister

Sir Geoffrey Nice KC is a British barrister and judge. He took part in the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and was lead prosecutor at Slobodan Milošević's trial. He is chair of the China Tribunal and the Uyghur Tribunal, which have investigated human rights abuses in China.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Xinjiang conflict</span> Geopolitical conflict in Central Asia

The Xinjiang conflict, also known as the East Turkistan conflict, Uyghur–Chinese conflict or Sino-East Turkistan conflict, is an ongoing ethnic geopolitical conflict in what is now China's far-northwest autonomous region of Xinjiang, also known as East Turkistan. It is centred around the Uyghurs, a Turkic ethnic group who constitute a plurality of the region's population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Xinjiang internment camps</span> Chinese prison camps in the Xinjiang region

The Xinjiang internment camps, officially called vocational education and training centers by the government of China, are internment camps operated by the government of Xinjiang and the Chinese Communist Party Provincial Standing Committee. Human Rights Watch says that they have been used to indoctrinate Uyghurs and other Muslims since 2017 as part of a "people's war on terror", a policy announced in 2014. The camps have been criticized by the governments of many countries and human rights organizations for alleged human rights abuses, including mistreatment, rape, and torture, with some of them alleging genocide. Some 40 countries around the world have called on China to respect the human rights of the Uyghur community, including countries such as Canada, Germany, Turkey, Honduras and Japan. The governments of more than 35 countries have expressed support for China's government. Xinjiang internment camps have been described as "the most extreme example of China's inhumane policies against Uighurs".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uyghur genocide</span> Series of human rights abuses against an ethnic group in Western China

The Chinese government has committed a series of ongoing human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minorities in Xinjiang that is often characterized as genocide. Beginning in 2014, the Chinese government, under the administration of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) General Secretary Xi Jinping, incarcerated more than an estimated one million Turkic Muslims without any legal process in internment camps. Operations from 2016 to 2021 were led by Xinjiang CCP Secretary Chen Quanguo. It is the largest-scale detention of ethnic and religious minorities since World War II. The Chinese government began to wind down the camps in 2019. Amnesty International states that detainees have been increasingly transferred to the formal penal system.

Merdan Ghappar is a Chinese model and a prisoner of Uyghur heritage. He became known for his internment in one of China's Xinjiang re-education camps in 2020. Merdan achieved to smuggle video footage and text messages from his internment camp to family members in Europe, who then passed the material on to the press. As of 5 August 2020, his status was unknown.

Rahile Dawut is an Uyghur ethnographer known for her expertise in Uyghur folklore and traditions. Formerly a professor at Xinjiang University, where she founded the Minorities Folklore Research Centre, she was disappeared by the Chinese government in 2017 and has not been seen since. In 2023, Rahile received a life sentence for "endangering state security".

References

  1. ↑ "Profile of Alimujiang Yimiti" (PDF). ChinaAid . Retrieved 2010-05-26.
  2. ↑ "China Christian Facing Execution After Tibet Protests, Family Says". BosNewsLife. 2008-04-09. Retrieved 2010-05-26.
  3. ↑ Bos, Stefan J. (2007-10-07). "China Expels Dozens of Foreign Missionaries, Closes Down Christian Companies". BosNewsLife. Worthy Christian News . Retrieved 2010-05-26.
  4. ↑ "Campaigners Call for Release of Prisoners of Conscience". Christian Solidarity Worldwide. Independent Catholic News. 2009-06-04. Retrieved 2010-05-26.
  5. ↑ Ireland, Michael (2009-07-27). "Trial Date set for Imprisoned Christian Alimujiang Yimiti". ASSIST News Service. Archived from the original on 2011-07-21. Retrieved 2010-05-26.
  6. ↑ "Uyghur Church Leader Sentenced to 15 Years Criminal Detention". Pakistan Christian TV. 2009-12-08. Retrieved 2010-05-26.
  7. ↑ Bos, Stefan J. (2009-04-02). "China Jailed House Church Leader Hospitalized; Christian Lawyer Remains Missing". Worthy Christian News. Retrieved 2010-05-26.
  8. ↑ "Uyghur Christian sentenced to fifteen years in prison". Christianity Today. 2009-12-10. Retrieved 2010-05-26.
  9. ↑ "Alimjan", Campaign, ODUK
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.