Name: Abdulghani Memetemin
Agency: East Turkestan Information Center
Date Imprisoned: 26 July 2002
Charge: Revealing: State Secrets
Sentence: 9 Years, plus three years removal of political rights
Memetemin was arrested in Kashgar in East Turkestan, where he worked as a writer, translator, and teacher. He is a strong advocate for the rights of the Uighur Ethnic group and frequently worked to provide and spread information on local issues in East Turkestan as well as to translate news stories on Uighur issues into mandarin chinese. His arrest was believed to be in relation to work that he did with the East Turkistan Information Center which championed the freedom of speech and culture for the heavily Muslim region, as well as providing support for its claim to a separate identity from communist china.
In June 2003 Memetemin was charged with 18 named acts which included:
- Translation of news stories from Uighur into chinese
- Providing official speeches to the East ETIC
- Recruitment of Uighur journalists for the ETIC
- Reporting for the ETIC.
The Turkistan Information Center, or ETIC, is a news and information groups based in Germany that supports the formation of an independent homeland for the Uighur people. It is prohibited in china.
During his trial, Memetemin was not given access to legal representation.
Since is arrest, Memetemin has kept incommunicado and has not been allowed any form of contact with his wife or children.
The chinese government has long suppressed the flow of information in, out, and around East Turkestan and frequently uses military intervention to suppress separatist groups calling for an independent Muslim homeland for the Uighur people who it regards as being chinese.
East Turkestan has been in a state of near constant unrest for decades and there are frequent reports of bomb and grenade attacks by pro Uighur groups, as well as armed reprisals/preemptions by chinese police and military forces.
