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The Chinese government accuse Uighur political prizoners in separatism and sentence them to death
 

Zulpiqar Muhammad was arrested on April 6,1998, while preparing for the evening praying at home when some police officials in plain cloth had called him out of his home.

 During the arrest at about eleven evening time the military and police officers had came into the house (fully armored) and demanded from the family members to turn him to the authorities. His elder brother Memet’s son Rishat was beaten by three policemen. The mother and grandmother of Zulpiqar were terrified and only at the demand of Uyghur policeman named Tursun the ordeal was ceased at the moment. The male members of the family were taken into custody (brothers Seyehmet and Rishat) and kept interrogated till the morning. And only by the intervention and the means of bribery the authorities had left those arrested free the next morning.

At the morning the family had discovered their belonging were taken by authorities. Their grandson was terribly traumatized. From the arrest of Zulpiqar on April sixth 1998, the whole family was under the constant surveillance by the Chinese authorities. And even the elder brother Hemit was deported by Kazakh authorities back  to Chinese on the demand. The family had suffered tremendous losses and was under the pressure and had nothing to do but pray to Allah.

Because of this ordeals family had suffered tremendously and even the sister of Zulpiqar was dismissed from her government position she held at the moment.

Zulpiqar was arrested on April 6 1998 and brought to the local administrative prison. On his arrest the prosecutor had said that he is charged with minor offences and tomorrow he will be released. But in contrary he was held in local prison for a week and tortured there. After a week of tortured Zulpiqar was not able to bear this mistreatments and managed to escape from the local prison. His warrant of arrest was issued. The police had searched for him everywhere. His parents were interrogated. Finding no place to hide he head to his friends Hemit house where the father of the late one had turned him to the Chinese Authorities.

Only after a month the relatives had received a phone call from Zulpiqar in prison where he described his terrible condition and asked to assist his stay at the prison. He also asked to speak with the Kazak guardian named Qali. The next day relatives managed to collect money and Seydehmet had paid 600 Yuan to Qali prison guardian in order to ease the stay of Zulpiqar.

It is a common practice to see relatives imprisoned on 15 day of each month. As usually relatives try to bribe guardians by whatever they can effort 20, 30, 40, or 100 Yuan. On return the guardians promise to feed their inmates and provide them with the warm blankets. In reality however only the third of this portion might be spend to the real needs of the inmates. The guardians always pocket the rest. And even worst the existence of the in-prison shops, where inmates are forced to buy soap, toothpaste twice above the market price, make the situation pitiful.

The family managed to hire a lawyer for the 1500-Yuan compensation.  

On 16 November 1998 the trial had begun.

At about 10.a.m. the four prisoners (among them Zulpiqar) are brought into the court. The appearance had made their mothers to cry because of the traces of torture on them. Zulpiqar asked his mother no to cry and his enemies jubilate. Zulpiqar was the first to be questioned in the court. As the evidence the three note books were shown during the trial. Those were the alleged confessions of Zulpiqar. And during the trial Zulpiqar had declined these evidences as fabricated and claimed that he was forced to sign them under torture. Furthermore Zulpiqar had said that those three of his inmates were tortured as well in order to withdrawn confessions from them. He denied allegations made against him.

At 5 p.m. the court had asked the last word from the Zulpiqar. Zulpiqar has said that during the arrest his belongings were confiscated. He demanded the return of his property from the authorities.

The rumors of the possible death penalty have spread among the participated crowd.

In April 1994 Zulpiqar was transferred to the new prison. As in the last prison the same system existed there as well. Corruption was wide spread and only half of the money given has actually reached inmates. The father of Zulpiqar had paid 50 Yuan to the prison guardian again. He even brought home made food to him during the seven month to this prison. But it never reached his son.

Those arrested – Hemit, Seydehmet were jailed in different prisons. His father spent the entire time commuting between them. On 24 July 1999 he learnt that his son Zulpiqar was sentenced to death. The parents appealed to the high court in Urumchi. But again Zulpiqar’s case was kept silent. He was showed on local TV among those convicted to death penalty (on 20 February 2000). After the announcing his penalty the criminal Chinese government had kept the actual carryout process for the long time. And at the meantime the guardians had asked him to call his parents to demand more money for his good treatment. For instance Zulpiqar himself and his guardians called to his sister and demanded money for him.

In prison Zulpiqar was constantly harassed and beaten. For instance the prison doctor had claimed that he suffered a severe beatings while in the custody. It was learnt afterwards that he was also poisoned from the food provided in the jail.

All this was happening while the guardians were receiving money from the family.

We know a numerous facts when inmates are being poisoned. For instance in 1998 in case of Peyzullah in Guldja city.

The fact is the Zulpiqar’s father had met with the authorities to discuss his son’s fate. The authorities had said his case would be investigated thoroughly but failed to do so.

The fact is 14 July 1998 as much as 130 Uyghur Youth were executed by Chinese on the same day.

On 13 July 2001 the execution of Zulpiqar was carried out. His father was brought to the scene of execution. They had five minutes together before the execution, and they said farewell to each other. His father had blessed him. After that he was taken out and his son was fired.

His father was shown a body of his son and later Imam of the prison had said to him not to cry because his son is shahid now.

We now know that the pressure is very tense in Gulja region nowadays. As it is the case for the inmates which were imprisoned together with Zulpiqar – Nurdun Lamalidin, Murat Abdukadir. We have learnt during the trial of Zulpiqar the real treasons and the acts of heroism. Zulpiqar had never sold his inmates to the authorities – Tursun, Ablikim, Abdiweli are the witnesses to this.

During the trial Zulpiqar denied wrongdoings and has said that he was participated the Guldja events because of his love to his nation.

On contrary those who betrayed him received a governmental award of 13 000 Yuan.  

Those suffering of Zulpiqar are typical for Uyghurs these days. The mistreatments and police abuses are wide spread and not an exceptions. And the Chinese oppression on Uyghur is intensifying every day.

© Uygur.Org  19/11/2001 20:30 A.Karakash