{"id":190924,"date":"2016-02-03T17:44:45","date_gmt":"2016-02-04T01:44:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=190924"},"modified":"2021-09-14T20:36:59","modified_gmt":"2021-09-15T03:36:59","slug":"china-reduces-sentences-for-11-uyghurs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2016\/02\/china-reduces-sentences-for-11-uyghurs\/","title":{"rendered":"China Reduces Sentences for 11 Uyghurs"},"content":{"rendered":"

China’s official Xinhua News Agency reports that a court in\u00a0Xinjiang has reduced the sentences of eleven Uyghurs<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>convicted of\u00a0terrorism and endangering state security:<\/p>\n

Seven of the severe offenders were commuted from life to jail terms ranging from 19.5 years to 20 years, according to a decision from the regional Higher People’s Court announced at a meeting at Xinjiang’s First Prison Monday.<\/p>\n

Among these were principal criminals who instigated secessionist activities or participated in violent terrorist attacks in Xinjiang. “They jeopardized China’s national security, disrupted social stability and caused heavy losses of lives and property,” said Mutalifu Wubli, president of Xinjiang’s Higher People’s Court.<\/p>\n

The other four prisoners had their jail terms shortened by six months from the initial 8, 13 and 15 years, according to the court’s decision. [Source<\/a><\/strong>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In the past few years, China has suffered a series of violent attacks that authorities\u00a0have labeled as\u00a0acts of terrorism<\/a> and attributed to radical separatists from Xinjiang<\/a>. The government responded with an anti-terror campaign<\/a>\u00a0focused on the region. At the same time, it has imposed a range of restrictions on cultural and religious practices<\/a>. Ben Blanchard at Reuters reports that\u00a0authorities are presenting the sentence reductions as evidence of successful de-radicalization<\/a><\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Xinjiang’s governor, Shohrat Zakir, was quoted by Xinhua as saying the region’s jails had been very successful in recent years at their de-radicalisation efforts, with a majority of convicts becoming law-abiding citizens.<\/p>\n

Efforts need to continue in this regard with a focus on those convicted for harming state security, he said.<\/p>\n

Xinhua said this had been accomplished by inviting religious leaders and scholars to talk to prisoners about “correct religious belief”. [Source<\/a><\/strong>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A spokesperson for the Uyghur Human Rights Project writes that the Chinese government has\u00a0a\u00a0“long record of conflating peaceful dissent with terrorism.”<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

UHRP believes a vague definition of \u201cterrorism\u201d and restrictions placed on reporting \u201cterror incidents\u201d contained within a new Counter-Terrorism Law legitimizes the use of excessive force against Uyghur civilians expressing peaceful dissent over government policies. Furthermore, the new legislation prevents and punishes commentary, domestic and foreign, critical of the repression and of \u201ccounter-terror\u201d measures in the region. The cases of Uyghur academic\u00a0Ilham Tohti, Xinjiang Daily editor\u00a0Zhao Xinwei\u00a0and French reporter\u00a0Ursula Gautier\u00a0demonstrate Beijing\u2019s zero tolerance for such questioning. [Source<\/a><\/strong>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At The Associated Press, Gerry Shih reports that one of those who received a reduced sentence is a naturalized Canadian<\/a><\/strong> jailed in 2007 for allegedly committing terrorist acts.<\/p>\n

Among the 11 prisoners with reduced terms is Huseyin Celil, a preacher from Ontario whose life sentence in 2007 sparked a diplomatic row between China and Canada. After fleeing China and gaining refugee status in 2000, Celil lived in Canada until he was arrested in Uzbekistan and extradited to China.<\/p>\n

China refused to recognize his Canadian citizenship and convicted him of organizing on behalf of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement militant group.<\/p>\n

[…]\u00a0The new duration of Huseyin Celil’s sentence has not been announced, said San Francisco-based activist John Kamm, who has pressed for Celil’s release on behalf of the Canadian government since 2009.<\/p>\n

But Kamm lauded the decision, telling The Associated Press on Wednesday that commuting Celil’s sentence represented “a step in the right direction” and should prompt other Xinjiang prisons to consider mass clemency. [Source<\/a><\/strong>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

China’s official Xinhua News Agency reports that a court in\u00a0Xinjiang has reduced the sentences of eleven Uyghurs\u00a0convicted of\u00a0terrorism and endangering state security: Seven of the severe offenders were commuted from life to jail terms ranging from 19.5 years to 20 years, according to a decision from the regional Higher People’s Court announced at a meeting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1088,"featured_media":132417,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[34,10,14744,14745,14746,100],"tags":[15049,4643,6671,306,15460,5921,7184],"class_list":["post-190924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-human-rights","category-law","category-level-2-article","category-level-3-article","category-level-4-article","category-politics","tag-jail-sentence","tag-security","tag-separatism","tag-terrorism","tag-uyghurs","tag-xinjiang","tag-xinjiang-violence","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nChina Reduces Sentences for 11 Uyghurs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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