United Nations Working Group Calls on China to Investigate the Cases of Justice Abroad’s Clients

JUSTICE ABROAD

“Here When You Need Us”

Press Statement

United Nations Working Group Calls on China to Investigate the Cases of Justice Abroad’s Clients Uyghur Businessmen Rozi and Mehmet Hemdul and Ethnic Uzbek Father and Son Arbitrarily Detained in Chinese Concentration Camps and Prisons

Justice Abroad’s Michael Polak is instructed by the family of Uyghur businessmen Rozi Hemdul and Mehmet Hemdul and ethnic Uzbek father and son Enwer Tursun and Ezimet Enwer who have been arbitrarily detained as part of the Chinese Government’s attack on minority Turkic people in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Area.

On 12 March 2020, Justice Abroad was informed by the United Nations’ Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances (UNWGEID) that they have transmitted the details of the men’s cases to the Chinese Government and hoped that ‘appropriate investigations would be carried out in order to clarify the fate and whereabouts of the aforementioned individuals and to protect their rights’. If China responds then this information, as well as the information submitted by Justice Abroad about the seizure and detention of the men, will be considered by the Working Group and it will determine whether these men have been subject to disappearance and detention which is unlawful as looks very likely.   The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWAD)  is also seized of the case and is conducting investigations.

The disappearance of these men follows a pattern in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Area (XUAR) whereby Uyghurs, Uzbeks, Kazakhs and other minority Muslim ethnically Turkic people have been subject to enforced disappearance, sent to concentration camps, and even used as forced labour in Chinese factories.

Further details of the men’s cases can be found here and  here and a video of an interview with Omer Hemdul, Rozi and Mehmet’s younger brother is available here and a video of the Tursun family who are based in Scandinavia, Germany, the USA, and Canada calling for their release is here

Justice Abroad’s Michael Polak stated that:

‘We are pleased that the UN Working Group has taken up these cases. It is important that China appreciates that their actions, which are unlawful under international law, are being noted and action is being taken.

The world must not turn a blind eye to the Chinese Government’s atrocious behaviour towards the Uyghur people and other Muslim ethnic minorities in XUAR and governments and civil society groups must speak up to end the intense suffering being inflicted on blameless people there.’

Justice Abroad can be found on Twitter here, Facebook here, and LinkedIn here.

On social media we will be using the hashtag #FreeHemdulBrothers and #FreeTheTursuns

Media requests for interviews with Michael Polak or members of the Hemdul or Tursun family can be accommodated 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.

To help such individuals or families with these dilemmas and many more, three experts, Michael Polak, a barrister with an international practice focussed on the assistance of foreign nationals in trouble around the world, David Swindle , a former Detective Superintendent who has worked on hundreds of murders and complex high profile investigations in the UK and abroad during his 34 years in the police, and David Walters MVO, a former British Diplomat with over thirty years’ experience having served in over a dozen countries around the world, have pooled their extensive experience and contacts together to provide a comprehensive service. In providing this service the team consider all legal, political, and investigatory steps which might assist their clients attain justice.