![\"uyghur-hamidulla-wali.jpeg\"](\"https:\/\/www.rfa.org\/english\/news\/uyghur\/businessman-11102020150856.html\/uyghur-hamidulla-wali.jpeg\/image\" "\\"uyghur-hamidulla-wali.jpeg\\"")
\n<\/div>\n\nHamidulla Wali<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Facing persecution<\/strong><\/p>\n
Wali, who was detained by Chinese security authorities in 2014, told RFA earlier this month that he believes if he is deported to China, he is likely to be forcibly disappeared and face imprisonment or detention in an internment camp. He was taken into custody in the XUAR following a June 2013 incident in Lukchun (Lukqun) township, in Turpan (Tulufan) prefecture’s Pichan (Shanshan) county, in which deadly clashes left at least 46 dead after protesters attacked area police stations, based on accounts by local officials and residents.<\/p>\n
The son of a female employee of Hadiya Clothing had participated in the incident, which ultimately led the authorities to suspect Wali himself of having been part of the events that unfolded. He was eventually declared innocent and released after several months in jail, but not before authorities shut down his Urumqi-based company and moved his household registration from the city back to his home area of Turpan\u2019s\u00a0Toksun (Tuokexun) county.<\/p>\n
Beijing describes the three-year-old network of camps as voluntary \u201cvocational centers\u201d that provides a deterrent to \u201creligious extremism,\u201d but reporting by RFA and other media outlets shows that detainees are mostly held against their will in cramped and unsanitary conditions, where they are forced to endure inhumane treatment and political indoctrination.<\/p>\n
Speaking to RFA\u2019s Mandarin Service, Shi Jianyu, an expert on Islamic issues at the Association of Central Asian Studies in Taiwan, said Beijing had identified Wali as a radical Islamist who had relayed the opinions of Turkish militants to sympathetic Uyghurs in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the future, it may be harmful to China, so Beijing used this as a reason to ask Saudi Arabia to send him back,\u201d Shi said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe only has a Turkish residence permit, which is a long-term residence permit, but in fact he does not have Turkish nationality. He is still holding a Chinese passport. Under such circumstances, Turkey cannot protect him with his nationality \u2026 If he is sent back to Beijing, his future will be frightful, and his end will definitely be very miserable.\u201d<\/p>\n
If Wali and Rozi are deported, it would not be the first time the Chinese and Saudi governments have cooperated to detain and forcibly repatriate Uyghurs from the Middle Eastern nation. The Saudi government is one of several from Muslim-majority countries throughout the region that have publicly defended China\u2019s repression of the Uyghurs on the grounds that China is legitimately dealing with a \u201cUyghur terrorism\u201d problem.<\/p>\n
In the past several years alone, Saudi has sent at least four Uyghurs back to China\u2014all four of whom had gone to the country either for work or to make a pilgrimage to Mecca for the\u00a0umrah hajj<\/i>.<\/p>\n
\u2018Apparent endorsement\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Human rights organizations have roundly criticized Saudi Arabia for such actions, which severely limit the rights of Uyghurs to free movement and, more specifically, their rights to freely practice religion by making the pilgrimage.<\/p>\n Dilshat Rashit, spokesman for the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress (WUC) exile group, noted that Saudi Arabia and China \u201care mutual allies at the U.N. Human Rights Council.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cChina has always worried that there will be countries that sympathize with and support Uyghurs in the Muslim world,\u201d Rashit told RFA\u2019s Mandarin Service.<\/p>\n The Asian superpower narrowly won a seat on the council last month, placing fourth out of five countries vying for four seats in the Asia-Pacific region. Saudi Arabia, which has faced its own share of condemnation over its rights record, placed fifth.<\/p>\n HRW noted Monday that under customary international law and as a party to the Convention against Torture, Saudi Arabia is obliged to ensure that no one in its custody is forcibly sent to a place where they would risk being subjected to persecution, torture, or other serious human rights violations.<\/p>\n \u201c[Saudi Crown Prince] Mohammed bin Salman\u2019s apparent endorsement of China\u2019s persecution of the Muslim Uyghur community is bad enough, but his government should not play a direct role in it by deporting Uyghur men back to possible arbitrary detention and torture,\u201d Stork said.<\/p>\n On Monday, RFA\u2019s Uyghur Service spoke with a representative of the Saudi mission to the U.N. in New York who said they would respond with more information about the detention of Wali and Rozi, but had yet to do so at the time of publication.<\/p>\n Reported by Gao Feng for RFA’s Mandarin service and Jilil Kashgary for RFA\u2019s Uyghur Service. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n\n