Uyghur Family Disappeared then Arbitrary Detained Despite not Committing any Crime Because Daughters Live Outside China

JUSTICE ABROAD

“Here When You Need Us”

Press Statement

Justice Abroad’s Michael Polak has been instructed to push for the release of a Uyghur family consisting of a father, mother, and two brothers, from Saybag town, Shufu County, in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) who have been arbitrarily detained because two members of the family, sisters, live outside the country, one in the United States of America where she works for Radio Free Asia and another in Turkey.

Abdurashid Tohti, 56 years old, his wife, Tajigul Qadir, aged 51, alongside their youngest son, Mohamed Ali Abdurashid, aged 30, disappeared in 2017 and have not been heard from since. Their eldest son, Ametjan Abdurashid, aged 34, has been arbitrarily detained since 2016.

Abdurashid and his two sons, Mohamed and Ametjan, worked at an auto-repair shop that was their family’s business, in the city of Kashgar, while Tajigul took care of the household. Now they have been transferred into the XUAR’s vast network of internment camps and prisons where authorities hold over a million Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims despite them not having committed any crimes, in contravention of international law.

Abdurashid and Tajigul’s daughters learned that the door to their family home had been padlocked but did not know what had happened to their family. They then were told through coded messages from friends in XUAR that their family had been disappeared by the Chinese authorities. On 15 June 2020, after a multitude of phone calls to various public institutions in an attempt to shed light on their family’s disappearance and after sending out a plea for help on Twitter that received significant attention, the sisters received a call from a representative of the Chinese Embassy in Ankara, who confirmed in a recording, that their four family members were in prison[1], serving sentences of between 7 and almost 17 years.

This family joins a long list of Uyghurs who have been subject to enforced disappearances and arbitrary detention despite not having committed any crimes because they have family members who live abroad.

China’s arbitrary mass internment of Uyghur, Uzbek, Kazakhs, Tajiks and other Turkic Muslim citizens, and the treatment and horrific conditions under which they are being held which amounts to torture, has now been widely reported by the international press.

Under these instructions, Justice Abroad will be advocating for the release of the four family members who have done nothing wrong and calling on United Nation’s bodies to press China to obey their international legal obligations.

Mr Polak states the following ‘This case sets out the nightmare faced by Uyghurs who live abroad and because of this have family members back home disappeared and arbitrarily detained. The Chinese authorities targeting of families simply because they have members living outside China is particularly reprehensible and a clear breach of international law.  We will be doing everything we can to push for this family to be freed to return to their ordinary law- abiding lives.’

On social media we will be using the hashtag #FreeNursFamily. Justice Abroad can be found on Twitter here, Facebook here, and LinkedIn here.

Media requests for interviews with Michael Polak or members of the Abdurashid family can be accommodated in any language requested and should be made by contacting Justice Abroad by email at contact@JusticeAbroad.co.uk or phone on +44 (0)203 488 2316.

Notes to Editors

Justice Abroad, www.justiceabroad.co.uk has been set up to help those trying to find their way through foreign justice systems with all the associated hurdles that presents, to represent those facing gross breaches of their human rights no matter where this takes place, and to advise and assist the victims of crimes as to how to achieve justice.

Justice Abroad, run by International lawyer Michael Polak, has assembled a team of top investigators, lawyers, and support staff to provide unparalleled support, advice and guidance, legal, advocacy, and investigatory service for your Justice Abroad issues anywhere in the world.  The Justice Abroad team with their trusted international pool of multilingual experts, their networks, and media contacts and their well-documented determination to leave no stone unturned in the search for the truth and justice for families who have been denied it are here to provide that much needed support for families and individuals in their time of need.

[1] https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/embassy-06182020173259.html