Apology call after ‘missing’ Uygur found in Seoul

Amnesty International admits student never entered HK, earning rebuke from government

Human rights group Amnesty International has admitted that a Uygur student it reported “missing in Hong Kong” was accounted for in the South Korean capital, prompting the city government to demand an apology from the organisation.

Hours before Amnesty’s about-face, a professor in Seoul who taught Abuduwaili Abudureheman alerted the media to the fact that the student had not even travelled to Hong Kong.

Amnesty said it spoke to Abuduwaili yesterday and understood he had not travelled to the city earlier this month, contrary to previous information received.

“We are pleased that Abuduwaili Abudureheman is accounted for,” an Amnesty International spokesman said.

“We will continue to strive to offer support to people who reach out to us when they believe they or their loved ones are at risk of human rights violations.

“We will also continue to monitor and document the grave human rights situation for Uygurs in mainland China and overseas, as well as the human rights situation in Hong Kong, which has deteriorated rapidly since the introduction of the national security law in 2020.”

Amnesty on Friday said Abuduwaili had travelled to Hong Kong from South Korea to visit a friend on May 10, but no one had heard from him since he texted a friend about “being interrogated by Chinese police” after landing at the airport.

The next day Hong Kong authorities hit back at the rights group over the “groundless” claim and insisted he had “not entered or been refused entry”.

In a statement yesterday, the Hong Kong government slammed Amnesty for failing to apologise for its “unfounded, despicable and fallacious remarks which maliciously smeared” the local authorities.

“The organisation not only refused to admit its mistakes, but also claimed that it would continue to monitor the human rights situation in Hong Kong and the mainland, attempting to cover up its mistakes and excuse itself for making the fabricated and malicious remarks that slandered Hong Kong and the mainland.

“The [Hong Kong] government despises the act and hopes that the organisation can make a sincere apology responsibly.”

In its reply to the Post yesterday, the organisation did not say whether it had verified the source of the information claiming Abuduwaili had gone missing before issuing its statement. Neither did Amnesty say if it would apologise to the Hong Kong government.

The group’s clarification came hours after Professor Jo Woog-yeon, of Kookmin University in Seoul, told the Post that he called the 38-year-old student on Sunday when he learned about Amnesty’s report from the news.

“When I told him about the news, Mr Abuduwaili himself expressed shock and dismay as he has been in South Korea throughout this year and he never set foot in Hong Kong,” he said.

The government despises the act and hopes that the organisation can make a sincere apology HONG KONG GOVERNMENT STATEMENT