Mewlan Nurmuhemmed worked as a fiber internet technician, and had spent 2 years in Turkey as a language student. In 2017, he was arrested and sentenced to 9 years for "separatism". He is now in Shihezi's Beiye Prison.
Testimony 1: Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, one of the thematic special procedures overseen by the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Testimony 2: Rizwangul Nurmuhemmed, as reported by Bitter Winter. (sister)
Testimony 3: Rizwangul Nurmuhemmed, as reported by 1 News. (sister)
Testimony 4|6: Rizwangul Nurmuhemmed, a scholar residing in New Zealand. (sister)
Testimony 5*: Rizwangul Nurmuhemmed, as reported by Gene A. Bunin. (sister)
Testimony 7: Amnesty International, a human rights organization.
Mewlan Nurmuhemmed is a father of one, who worked as a fiber internet technician prior to his arrest. He had also lived in Turkey from 2012 to 2014 as a language student, hoping to improve his career prospects.Mewlan Nurmuhemmed is a 34-year-old Uyghur man (as of 9 August 2020). The victim has one sister, Rizwangul Nurmuhemmed, and no brothers.
He speaks fluent Mandarin and worked as an Internet Network Engineer (Testimony 5: Fibre Internet Technician) up until the point of his arrest in January 2017.
He got married in 2015 and has one son, who was born in April 2016 and is 4 years old (as of 9 August 2020). The victim's Chinese name (written in Latin script) is Maiwulani Nuermaimaiti.
The victim studied "languages" [unspecified] in Turkey at an unknown point in time.
Testimony 4: The victim's wife and son have moved in with the victim's mother in Xinjiang, who baby-sits the victim's son whilst his wife is out at work.
Testimony 4: The parents of the victim were "respected teachers in the community".
Testimony 4: The victim's father passed away in 2012.
Testimony 3: The victim's mother is reportedly now "an elderly lady" and cannot have another son.
Testimony 7: The victim was working as a fibre internet technician before he travelled to Turkey to study Turkish from 2012 to 2014. The purpose of his Turkish studies was to improve his career prospects, as there were many business opportunities requiring knowledge of Turkish. Mewlan Nurmuhammad returned from Turkey to Xinjiang in June 2014 and started working [again] as a fibre internet technician full-time.
Testimony 7: his name in Mandarin is 买吾拉尼·努尔买买提.
Testimony 8: born on June 5, 1986
current location
Beiye First Prison in Shihezi City. [Presumably the first district/area of the Eighth Division Beiye Prison.]As of 9 August 2020: the victim is currently serving a nine year prison sentence in Beiye Prison, Shihezi City, Xinjiang. (Testimony 6: Beiye First Prison)
chronology of detention(s)
Mewlan was arrested in January 2017 by plainclothes police officers while on lunch break at a local restaurant. According to the report published in Bitter Winter, he was allegedly "hooded, shackled, and hauled away by machine-gun brandishing police officers".
As of March 2017, he was reported as being at a Bortala detention center [presumably 博乐市看守所]. At one point during his detention, there was reportedly a false alarm that he would be released, but this never happened.
There was no immediate trial following the arrest, and the Chinese authorities did not initially provide an explanation as to why the victim was being detained.
According to Rizwangul Nurmuhemmed, Mewlan was transferred between a concentration camp and "prison" [likely: pre-trial detention center] several times after the initial arrest.
Information later obtained by the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) showed that Mewlan had been sentenced to 9 years in prison for "splitting the Chinese state". According to a later statement by the Chinese embassy [presumably in New Zealand], he had been sentenced in August 2017.From Testimonies 2-4:
Mewlan Nurmuhammad was arrested in January 2017 by plain-clothes police officers during his lunch break whilst he was eating at a local restaurant.
The victim's son was approximately 9 months old at the time of the victim's arrest.
One report from Bitter Winter (Testimony 2) states that when the victim was arrested, he was "hooded, shackled, and hauled away by machine gun brandishing police officers."
A few weeks after the victim was arrested, the victim's mother reportedly disappeared from social media. After that point in time, the testifier (Rizwangul Nurmuhemmed) had no way of contacting her family in Xinjiang.
Testimony 2: There was reportedly "one false alarm that [the victim] was to be released" during the first "several months" of his detention.
There was no immediate trial and Chinese authorities did not initially provide an explanation as to why the victim was being detained.
Testimony 3: According to Rizwangul Nurmuhemmed, the victim was transferred between a concentration camp and prison several times after his arrest.
After the victim's arrest, Rizwangul Nurmuhemmed approached the United Nations, the Chinese embassy [presumably in New Zealand] and the New Zealand government in relation to the victim's detention. The process was reportedly quite slow, so Rizwangul Nurmuhammad decided to speak publicly about the victim's case starting in late 2019.
Rizwangul Nurmuhammad started a petition on Change.org in relation to the victim's detention (Testimony 4).
Approximately three weeks after Rizwangul Nurmuhammad started the aforementioned petition, she started to receive voice messages via WeChat from the victim's mother (after approximately two and a half years of silence).
Information later obtained by the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (UN WGEID) showed that Mewlan Nurmuhammad was sentenced to 9 years in prison by Chinese authorities for "splitting the Chinese state" (i.e. separatism).
The victim's mother was reportedly allowed one brief video call with the victim whilst he was in prison on 10 June 2020, after which the victim's mother said that the victim looked "OK". This served as a confirmation that the victim was still alive.
The Chinese embassy [presumably in New Zealand] responded to Rizwangul Nurmuhemmed in early June 2020 with information supporting the UN WGEID findings that her brother was serving a sentence in Beiye Prison, Shihezi City, Xinjiang.
In a statement to 1 News New Zealand, the Chinese Embassy [presumably of New Zealand] said that Mewlan is now serving his sentence in Beiye prison, having been sentenced to 9 years in prison for separatist activities by China's judicial authority in August 2017.
suspected and/or official reason(s) for detention
"Separatism"."Separatism".
last reported status
Serving a prison sentence.
On June 10, 2020, Mewlan's mother was reportedly allowed one brief video call with him, after which she said that he looked "okay". Rizwangul reported this as confirmation that the victim was still alive. (She adds that he's never had problems with his health prior to detention.)
[There is a strong likelihood of him being subjected to forced labor at the prison facility, as the prison has been documented to have textile workshops, previously contracted to the Zhuofan Garments & Accessories LTD.]Testimony 1: seen in Bortala detention center in March 2017
Testimony 2-4:
As of 9 August 2020, the victim was alive and currently serving a 9-year prison sentence in Beiye Prison, Shihezi City, Xinjiang. The victim was reportedly sentenced to 9 years in prison in August 2017.
According to his mother, who was allowed a brief video call on 10 June 2020, the victim looked "OK".
Testimony 5: He was healthy, had never been admitted to hospital or took any medication prior to the arrest in Jan 2017.
how testifier(s) learned of victim's situation
Through [monitored] conversation(s) with her mother over WeChat, as well as via official statements from the Chinese authorities.The testifier (Rizwangul Nurmuhemmed) learned about the victim's status through multiple sources, including the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (UN WGEID), the Chinese embassy [presumably in New Zealand], and through [monitored] conversation with her mother over WeChat.
(Since starting this petition, Rizwangul Nurmuhemmed has received "several intimidating phone calls", which she reported to both the Chinese embassy and the New Zealand police. About three weeks after the petition was launched, she also started to receive voice WeChat messages from her mother, after approximately two and a half years of silence.)
Mewlan's company in Bortala City: https://archive.is/zpC6n- Mewlan Nurmuhemmed does not drink or smoke. He reportedly had "good relationships with all ethnic groups in his work unit."
- The victim's mother is reportedly not aware of the fact that Rizwangul Nurmuhemmed is speaking publicly about the victim's case.
- The victim's older sister, Rizwangul Nurmuhemmed, studied in Beijing at an unspecified point in time before she moved to New Zealand approximately 10 years ago [as of 9 August 2020] to begin a Master's degree.
- Since starting the petition on Change.org in relation to the victim, Rizwangul Nurmuhemmed received "several intimidating phone calls", which she reported to the Chinese embassy [premably in New Zealand] and the New Zealand police.
Former Bortala City Detention Center
Eighth Division Beiye Prison
