The Norway-based Uyghur Hjelp Foundation broke the news, that the prominent publisher Erkin Emet from the Uyghur minority in China has now been sentenced to prison. The claim was supported by officials in Xinjiang.
65-year old Erkin Emet published books about the uyghur cultural identity and China’s persecution of the ethnic minority. The Norwegian foundation compiled a list of detained intellectuals in Xinjiang, which revealed he was taken into custody in July 2018. This was said by the organization’s founder Abduweli Ayup.
It is unknown where exactly he is in prison and how long his sentence is. The books he was sentenced for publishing was Halide Israel’s “Altun Kesh” or “Golden Shoes” in English language and for marketing Zordun Sabir’s “Ana Yurt” or “Motherland” in English language.
Erkin Emet was arrested in relation to a crackdown on Uyghur intellectuals known as “Hui Tou Kan”, meaning looking back in English. According to Radio Free Asia, Chinese authorities detained Uyghur intellectuals, which also included writers and publishers in internment camps or prisons if their work was viewed as separatist tendencies.
The Uyghurs are a muslim ethnic group native to the Xinjiang region in China. Human rights groups believe China has detained more than one million Uyghurs against their will in so-called “re-educational” camps and sentenced hundreds of thousands to prison. China denies allegations of human rights abuse.
Source: Radio Free Asia
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