Rishat Haji’s older brother, who has disappeared in Turkey, is suspected of involvement in separatist activities.<\/p>\n
2016-12-01<\/p>\n
Authorities in China\u2019s northwestern region of Xinjiang have detained a young Uyghur man in a bid to force the return from Turkey of his older brother, whom police suspect as a separatist, the man\u2019s grandmother says.<\/p>\n
Rishat Haji, 24, is being held in the city of Atush in Xinjiang\u2019s Kizilsu Kirghiz Autonomous Prefecture, near Kashgar, Reyhannisa Haji told RFA\u2019s Uyghur Service.<\/p>\n
It is Rishat\u2019s second time in custody since his brother, Abduweli Haji, fled with his family to Turkey in November 2015, his grandmother said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was detained for the first time about 15 days after his older brother\u2019s travel to Turkey,\u201d the woman said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe police said at that time that they were investigating a case of separatism in which they thought Abduweli was involved, and they said that Rishat would be released if Abduweli came back from Turkey.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, after six months in detention at the Ulugchat Detention Center, they let him go after he promised to convince his brother to come back,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Four months later, Rishat was again detained, this time accused of having previously sent a large sum of money to his brother, a clothing salesman, in Turkey during a business trip three years before.<\/p>\n
Police say the money\u201410,000 yuan (U.S.$1,452)\u2014was sent to support an exile Uyghur organization set up to separate the mostly Muslim Xinjiang region from Beijing\u2019s control, the grandmother said.<\/p>\n
\u201cRishat owns a small clothing store in Atush, and the police clearly know what he purchased from Turkey for that money,\u201d Rishat\u2019s grandmother said. \u201cWe believe that he was detained again because Abduweli has not returned.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOr maybe the police are looking for some praise from higher authorities for discovering more \u2018guilty\u2019 people,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Father, sister also detained<\/strong><\/p>\n Rishat\u2019s father Haji Ablimit and sister Melike Haji were also briefly held and questioned, with his sister released after 15 days because of her pregnancy, and his father held for 45 days during which he was tortured and threatened by police, the grandmother said.<\/p>\n Speaking to RFA, Haji Ablimit declined to speak in detail about the case, saying he is still subject to arrest because he is younger than Rishat\u2019s grandmother, now 79.<\/p>\n \u201cMy age will not permit me to say anything about this case, or to say anything at all about Turkey,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Attempts by friends to locate Abduweli, who took his wife and five children with him to Turkey, have meanwhile failed, sources told RFA.<\/p>\n \u201cI haven\u2019t seen him, though I heard about him when he was looking for a school for his children,\u201d Hamuthan Gokturk, a prominent Uyghur activist based in Turkey, said.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was very cautious about meeting Uyghur activists like me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI heard later that he had started a business by opening a restaurant in Istanbul, but recently when I visited the restaurant I found that it was being run by somebody else. I heard customers saying that [Abduweli] had disappeared with his entire family.\u201d<\/p>\n No interest in politics<\/strong><\/p>\n Also speaking to RFA, a friend of Abduweli said that the Uyghur businessman had no interest in politics or religion, and that he had planned to return to Xinjiang after his younger brother was first detained.<\/p>\n \u201cBut he came back from the airport after being warned by a friend in [Xinjiang\u2019s capital] Urumchi that his name had appeared on a warrant for arrest,\u201d the friend said, speaking on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n \u201cI have heard some say that he may now have died of a heart attack,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Reyhannisa Haji, the two brothers\u2019 grandmother, said she fears for the safety of Abduweli\u2019s children.<\/p>\n \u201cMy heart breaks when I imagine the condition of my great-grandchildren in Turkey,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cNow we are helpless. The authorities are bullying us, and there is nothing we can do but to pray and cry.\u201d<\/p>\n Reported and translated by Shohret Hoshur for RFA\u2019s Uyghur Service. Written in English by Richard Finney.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rishat Haji’s older brother, who has disappeared in Turkey, is suspected of involvement in separatist activities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3187,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-3188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3188"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=3188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}