Jailed Uighurs top world prison rate

Nearly one in 25 people in a county in the Uighur heartland of China has been sentenced to prison on terrorism-related charges in what is the highest known imprisonment rate in the world, analysis of leaked data shows.

A list obtained and partially verified by the Associated Press cites the names of more than 10,000 Uighurs sent to prison in just Konasheher county alone, one of dozens in southern Xinjiang.

In recent years, China has waged a brutal crackdown on the Uighurs, a largely Muslim minority, which it has described as a war on terror.

The list is by far the biggest to emerge to date with the names of imprisoned Uighurs, reflecting the sheer size of a Chinese government campaign that swept an estimated million or more people into internment camps and prisons.

It also confirms what families and rights groups have said for years: China is relying on a system of long-term incarceration to keep the Uighurs in check, wielding the law as a weapon of repression.

Under searing international criticism, Chinese officials announced the closure in 2019 of shortterm, extrajudicial internment camps where Uighurs were thrown in without charges.

However, although attention focused on the camps, thousands of Uighurs still languish for decades in prison on what experts say are trumped-up charges of terrorism.

Uighur farmer Rozikari Tohti was known as a softspoken, family-loving man with three children and no interest in religion.

So his cousin, Mihrigul Musa, was shocked to discover Mr Tohti had been thrown into prison for five years for “religious extremism”.

From the list, Mr Musa found out Mr Tohti’s younger brother Ablikim Tohti was also sentenced to seven years on charges of “gathering the public to disturb social order”.

Mr Tohti’s next-door neighbour, a farmer called Nurmemet Dawut, was sentenced to 11 years on the same charges as well as “picking quarrels and provoking troubles”.

Konasheher county is typical of rural southern Xinjiang, and more than 267,000 people live there.

The prison sentences across the county were for two to 25 years, with an average of nine years, the list shows.

While the people on the list were mostly arrested in 2017, according to Uighurs in exile, their sentences are so long that the vast majority would still be in prison.

Those swept up came from all walks of life, and included men, women, young people and the elderly who had only one thing in common – they were all Uighurs.

Experts say it clearly shows people were targeted simply for being Uighur – a conclusion vehemently denied by Chinese authorities.

Xinjiang spokesman Elijan Anayat said sentences were carried out in accordance with the law.