(WiPC/IFEX) – WiPC of International PEN is seriously concerned about the sentencing of Uighur historian and writer Tohti Muzart to fourteen years’ imprisonment. International PEN fears that Muzart may be detained solely for his peaceful and legitimate activities as a researcher and writer, and if this is the case urges his immediate and unconditional release […]
(WiPC/IFEX) – WiPC of International PEN is seriously concerned about the sentencing of Uighur historian and writer Tohti Muzart to fourteen years’ imprisonment. International PEN fears that Muzart may be detained solely for his peaceful and legitimate activities as a researcher and writer, and if this is the case urges his immediate and unconditional release in accordance with Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
According to WiPCâs information, Muzart was arrested in the summer of 1999 in Urumchi, Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR), northwest China, where he had gone to collect research material. He had reportedly been watched by security police for some time prior to his arrest, and is said to have been arrested with allegedly sensitive material. Some reports claim that the content of this material was on ethnic relations published for classified circles only, others that it was material published for the general public. He was reportedly held without trial at a detention centre for one year incommunicado, before being sentenced in the summer of 2000 to fourteen years imprisonment on charges of “attempting to pass secret information across the border.”
Muzart graduated from the history department of the Central Institute of Nationalities, Urumchi, in 1984 and was assigned to work for the China National Standing Committee. During this time, he reportedly formed a close relationship with former Xinjiang Governors Seyfudin Eziz and Ismail Emet, and was involved in the translation of Eziz’s works. He studied for his Ph.D at Tokyo University from 1990-1995, specialising in Uighur history and ethnic relations. He has reportedly published several papers on Uighur history in Japan, and has published a book in Beijing.
Muzart has a wife and children in Japan. Muzart is from Bay County, Aksu prefecture. He adopted the name of the biggest river Muzart in Bay County as his penname.
Recommended Action
Send appeals to authorities:
– expressing serious concern about the lengthy sentence handed down to historian and writer Muzart, apparently solely for the peaceful exercise of his right to free expression
– seeking further details of the charges against him, and urging that he be released immediately and unconditionally if detained in violation of Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Appeals To
His Excellency Jiang Zemin
State Council
Beijing 100032
P.R.China
His Excellency Xiao Yang Buzhang
Minister of Justice
Sifabu, Xiaguangli
Beijing 100016
P.R.China
Please note that fax numbers are no longer available for the Chinese authorities, so you may wish to ask the diplomatic representative for China in your country to forward your appeals.
Please copy appeals to the diplomatic representative for China in your country and to the source if possible.
