Uyghur woman who escaped forced abortion said to have died in prison
March 29, 2022A Uyghur woman who escaped from a hospital in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region to avoid a forced abortion in 2014 has died in prison, a Uyghur who lives in exile and a village police officer said.
Authorities ordered Zeynebhan Memtimin to terminate her pregnancy, but she fled the hospital in Keriye (in Chinese Yutian) county in Hotan (Hetian) prefecture where the procedure was to take place.
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When the child turned three in 2017, authorities detained Zeynebhan in an internment camp along with her husband, Metqurban Abdulla, who had helped her escape from the hospital, on charges of “disturbing the social order” and “religious extremism” for avoiding the abortion, the Uyghur in exile told RFA last week.
Both were sentenced to 10 years in prison, the source said.
The Uyghur source said that contacts in the region and a former neighbor confirmed last week that Zeynebhan died in 2020.
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A police officer in Arish village confirmed to RFA that Zeynebhan and Metqurban had been sentenced to 10 years, but he didn’t provide any information on what happened to their four children after they had been incarcerated.
“They were sentenced to 10 years in prison and were serving their terms in Keriye Prison,” he told RFA.
He also said that Zeynebhan was 40 years old when she died in prison from an illness caused by having multiple births, and that she had been jailed for violating family planning policies.
“Since she had multiple births, it’s natural that she died from illness,” he said.