China: Uyghur student facing trial highlights government push to jail Muslims
A Uyghur student is set to go on trial for “separatism” in the city of Urumqi on Tuesday in what appears to be the latest example of the Chinese government’s strategy to unlawfully imprison Muslims in the country’s Xinjiang region, Amnesty International said.
Zulyar Yasin was detained at his home in December 2021 and his family were recently informed that he will be sentenced to up to five years in jail, Amnesty has learned.
Yasin appears to have been targeted because he travelled to Turkey as a teenager.
“This prosecution is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to human rights violations against Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other Muslims in Xinjiang, but it provides a snapshot of how the Chinese government’s machine of repression is operating,” said Gwen Lee, Amnesty International’s China Campaigner.
“Zulyar Yasin appears to be the latest victim of the government’s campaign to arbitrarily detain Uyghurs and other Muslims in prisons on a mass scale. Yasin’s family say the authorities have provided zero evidence for the ‘separatism’ charges against him.”
Yasin, 25, was in the final year of a five-year land management and forestry course at Fujian University in south-eastern China when he was arrested while doing an internship in Urumqi, Xinjiang.
