Uyghur journalist serving 15 years in prison for 'political crimes' in Xinjiang

Uyghur journalist who went missing in November 2017 is serving 15 years in prison in northwestern China's Xinjiang region for "political crimes", Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported.

Qurban Mamut, an Uyghur journalist disappeared several months after he and his wife returned home after visiting their son, Bahram Sintash, at his home in Virginia in 2017.

Chinese authorities had kept Mamut's imprisonment and sentence a secret since they arrested him, said his son, a police officer and a Chinese court official in Xinjiang, RFA reported.

It further reported that Mamut's arrest coincided with a Chinese government crackdown on Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang. In some cases, authorities have not disclosed sentencing terms from the families of the jailed Uyghurs.

"None of these efforts helped me to get any information on my father," Sintash told RFA in February when he learned from his older sister that Mamut was alive but serving 15 years in prison.

"Qurban Mamut was sentenced to 15 years in prison for political crimes," the police in Kucha told RFA.

Sintash expressed deep concern about his father's health now that he is confined to a "hospital prison" where detainees receive medical treatment while they are handcuffed to their beds and under increased supervision.

"I don't know what hospital prison is or what kind of place it is ... but after hearing the news I am more concerned about my father. When his 15-year prison term ends, he will be in his 80s if he comes out of the Chinese prison live," he said, according to RFA.

For years, Chinese authorities have subjected Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in Xinjiang to arbitrary arrests and detentions in internment camps, physical abuse, and restrictions on their religious practices and culture in what the United States and legislatures of several other Western countries say amounts to genocide and crimes against humanity.

The US and parliaments in some Western countries have declared China's actions against the Uyghurs and other Turkic people a genocide and crimes against humanity, though China has denied accusations of abuse, Radio Free Asia reported.

( With inputs from ANI )

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