The Guardian-Uyghur film-maker claims he was tortured by authorities in China
November 8, 2023 4 min 684 words
这则报道揭示了中国新疆地区的人权困境和政治迫害问题。乌鲁木齐一名维吾尔族电影导演，Ikram Nurmehmet，声称在拘留期间遭受酷刑，被迫作伪证。他被指控组织“恐怖主义”活动和参与“东突厥斯坦分裂主义”组织，而中国当局则将类似组织视为分裂威胁。这种指控似乎与他在土耳其学习电影制作以及通过作品中展现维吾尔族主题有关。 Nurmehmet的指控引发了对在政治案件中使用酷刑的担忧。虽然中国法律规定不得使用酷刑逼供，但实际上并未有效执行。这是一个严重的人权问题。 报道还提到，在政治敏感案件中，中国当局通常会拒绝家庭自行指定律师，这进一步剥夺了被告的权利。对于Nurmehmet的支持者来说，这是一个心情沮丧的消息。 这则报道突显了维吾尔族知识分子和文化精英遭受的迫害可能比已报告的案例更为广泛。对于政府来说，那些试图通过工作来实现维吾尔族人的人性化以及促进维吾尔族人和中国人之间的交流的人可能引发怀疑。 新疆地区自2014年以来一直处于中国的“严打”反恐战役之下，估计有数十万人被关押。此外，根据维吾尔人权项目的数据库，自2016年至2021年之间，已有300多名知识分子和文化精英以某种非法拘留方式失踪。 这则报道强调了维吾尔族及其文化精英在中国新疆地区面临的严重人权挑战，以及国际社会需要关注和采取行动的紧迫性。
A Uyghur film-maker has alleged he was tortured and forced to give a false confession during detention in Xinjiang province.
Ikram Nurmehmet, 32, appeared on trial at Ürümqi people’s intermediary court on 27 October and is accused of organising “terrorist” activities and participating in an “East Turkestan separatist” group, sources close to him told the Guardian.
Chinese authorities blame the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, which once advocated independence in Xinjiang, for a series of terrorist attacks in the late 1990s and see similar groups as a separatist threat. Nurmehmet denied the allegations and no verdict was announced.
Known for portraying Uyghur protagonists in his work, Nurmehmet also spent six years studying film-making in Turkey, which his supporters said made him a target of state scrutiny.
“I was held in a dark room for 20 days and physically tortured,” Nurmehmet reportedly said during the trial, adding that he was made to give false confessions under duress while in detention. “I never joined any terrorist group or any political activities while I was in Turkey.”
The trial was attended by Nurmehmet’s wife, mother and father, who have not been able to meet him since he was arrested at his home in Beijing and flown to Xinjiang in May.
Nurmehmet has been denied his choice of legal counsel and is currently being represented by a state-appointed lawyer, according to sources close to him. The lawyer told family members to expect a sentence of “more than eight years in prison”, and that the verdict may be announced any time from “a week or years” later.
“I kept feeling that he can be released suddenly. It’s always in my mind,” a source close to him told the Guardian. “That’s why I was so disappointed to hear that he (might face) at least eight years in prison.”
Maya Wang, associate director in the Human Rights Watch’s Asia division, called the use of torture “routine” in cases where the accused is facing political charges, especially in Xinjiang. While Chinese law has an exclusionary clause stipulating that any confessions extracted under torture should be excluded in trial, the rule “does not actually function in practice”, she said.
Under Chinese law, the term “terrorism” has a broad definition that can cover anything from producing a politically sensitive film to meeting any overseas Uyghur or human rights activist (who are all considered terrorists by the Chinese state), according to William Nee, research and advocacy coordinator at the Chinese Human Rights Defenders.
In politically sensitive cases where the state would want to control the outcome, authorities will frequently deny families the right to appoint their own legal counsel, Nee added.
Nurmehmet’s supporters are working on submitting a petition to the United Nations’ working group on arbitrary detention to request more information and continue advocating on his behalf.
In the past year, the working group has issued opinions on three cases involving Uyghurs, all of whom were deemed to be victims of arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance under international law.
Peter Irwin, associate director for research and advocacy at the Uyghur Human Rights Project, said the persecution of Uyghur intellectuals and cultural elites may be more widespread than reported cases suggested. In Nurmehmet’s case, it is difficult to know whether he was targeted for having studied in Turkey or his status as a cultural figure, he said.
“There are a lot of people being sentenced who went to Turkey. In some ways, what this film-maker was doing through his work – the humanisation of Uyghurs and [facilitating] communication between Uyghurs and Chinese people – I think the government is suspicious and worries about this kind of stuff.”
The Chinese state launched its Strike Hard anti-terrorism campaign in Xinjiang in 2014, after several terrorist attacks reportedly orchestrated by Uyghur separatists. An estimated half a million people are believed to have been imprisoned during a crackdown that escalated in 2017.
More than 300 intellectuals and members of its cultural elites are currently held in some form of extralegal detention after having disappeared between 2016 and 2021, according to a database by the Uyghur Human Rights Project.