testifying party

H.

victim's relation to testifier

information publicly available

about the victim

name: Niyaz Kahar
gender: male
ethnicity: Uyghur
age: 1975
place of origin: born in Yokuri Akyer village near Kumul city
occupation: reporter and blogger

He was detained on approximately 26 July 2009 and sentenced to 13 years in prison for separatism in a closed session in Urumchi. He worked as a local reporter and operated a Uyghur-language website with articles on Uyghur history, culture and politics (called Golden Tarim). His family can only visit him for 15 minutes every 4 months. His health is deteriorating according to his mother.

current location

Shikho prison in Shikho (Wusu) city in Ili prefecture

Zhongxin LLC (乌苏众鑫农工贸有限责任公司) operates out of Wusu Prison (http://archive.is/RbYxM), suggesting the likelihood of the victim being subjected to forced labor.

chronology of detention(s)

26/07/2009

suspected and/or official reason(s) for detention

separatism, publishing illegal news and propagated ideas of ethnic separatism on his website

last reported status

in prison

how testifier(s) learned of victim's situation

tweet by @UyghurCongress (WorldUyghurCongress) on 1 FEB 2019
https://cpj.org/data/people/niyaz-kahar/
RFA https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/prison-09142015151424.html (published 14 SEPT 2015)

additional information

Mentioned in the CECC report: https://www.cecc.gov/sites/chinacommission.house.gov/files/documents/CECC%20Pris%20List_20181011_1424.pdf

places of detention

Wusu Prison

supplementary materials

entry created on: 2019-03-22

entry last modified on: 2020-01-01

last update from testifier(s): 2019-03-22