Photo courtesy of a family member
Chinese authorities have sentenced the brother and sister of a prominent exiled Uyghur scholar and linguist to several years in jail in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), government and police officials in the region told RFA last month.
The confirmation of the sentence comes on the heels of an RFA report confirming that scholar Abduweli Ayup’s niece, Mihray Erkin, had died at the Yanbulaq internment camp while being investigated by state security police in Kashgar (in Chinese, Kashi) prefecture.
Abduweli Ayup is the founder of Uyghur Hjelp, a Norway-based Uyghur advocacy and aid organization which maintains a list of detained Uyghur intellectuals.
Prominent Uyghur scholar s niece confirmed dead in Xinjiang
ANI
28 May 2021, 03:37 GMT+10
Beijing [China], May 27 (ANI): Prominent Uyghur scholar and linguist-in-exile Abduweli Ayup s niece is confirmed to have died last year under detention by state security police in China s Xinjiang region, informed official sources.
Mihray Erkin, a graduate of Shanghai s Jiao Tong University, had gone on to become a researcher at Japan s Nara Institute of Science and Technology. He returned to Xinjiang in August 2019 after authorities in Kashgar put her parents under pressure to call her home, reported Radio Free Asia (RFA).
In late 2020, RFA reported that Erkin was believed to have died while in detention in one of the vast network of internment camps in Xinjiang, where up to 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities have been held since 2017. The report was not independently confirmed at the time.
Beijing [China], May 27 (ANI): Prominent Uyghur scholar and linguist-in-exile Abduweli Ayup's niece is confirmed to have died last year under detention by state security police in China's Xinjiang region, informed official sources.
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