China jails woman for teaching Quran to Uyghur children

UCA News reporter

Activists from Amnesty International hold placards to support Uyghurs on the sidelines of the Chinese president's two-day state visit to France, on May 6, 2024. (Photo: AFP)

A Uyghur Muslim woman has been sentenced to an additional 14-year prison term for allegedly teaching the Quran to teenagers following a decade in jail, says a report.

Heyrinisa Memet was sentenced on June 11 for imparting religious instructions to the youths in 2014, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported on June 18.

Memet had provided religious instructions to the children at the request of her neighbors, the director of security of Zulkum village in Kashgar prefecture, who wished to be unidentified over fears of reprisals, said.

Her crime was teaching religious content to kids, the official said adding that she wasn't changing those kids' ideology, but was just teaching them religious content.

The current prison sentence was imposed on Memet just days after she completed a 10-year prison term for her alleged involvement in a 2014 terrorist attack in Xinjiang that Chinese authorities blamed on separatist Uyghur Muslims, RFA reported.

Memet was arrested after the attack in Xinjiang's capital Urumqi on May 22, 2014, that killed more than 40 people, including four assailants, and injured more than 90 people.

The assailants had reportedly driven two sports utility vehicles through a busy street market while tossing out explosives and mowing down mainly Han Chinese shoppers before colliding with each other and exploding.

At the time, activists had alleged that the violence was being driven by restrictive and discriminatory government policies directed at Uyghurs and the belief that only Han Chinese migrants were benefiting from economic growth in the region.

The Chinese authorities have punished large numbers of Uyghurs in Xinjiang for religious offenses, including teaching the Quran to children, RFA reported citing leaked Chinese government documents, Uyghur rights groups, and former detainees of re-education camps.

Allegedly, the authorities have criminalized religious education as they believe that Uyghurs use religion to incite subversion of state sovereignty, endanger social stability, and advocate religious extremism, terrorism, and ethnic separatism, RFA reported.

Memet was among three people from Zulkum village who were sentenced in closed-door trials in Makit county of Kashgar prefecture on June 11, the unnamed village security director and a police officer said.

The other two Uyghurs underwent a new trial around one and a half years after their release.

There was no problem, but they were arrested only because they were in prison before, the unnamed village security director alleged.

The duo was sentenced to 18 years in prison for listening to audio recordings or watching videos, the unnamed village security director told RFA.

There was no mention of extremism, but they were keeping those audio and videos. They were accused of having hatred towards Han Chinese people, but there was no evidence, the village security director said.

The Chinese authorities allegedly told their family members that their previous education was not sufficient, so they were taken away for further education.

An unnamed police officer in Makit county told RFA that some of the Uyghurs sentenced during the 2014 crackdown had completed their prison terms but were transferred to a jail upon release.

Some were kept in jail for a month, some for a year, and others were sentenced again, the officer told RFA.

Among them were three people from Zulkum village who were sentenced to up to 18 years in prison, the officer said without providing any further details.