Xinjiang Authorities Jail Uyghur Imam Who Took Son to Unsanctioned Religious School
May 10, 2018Authorities in Hotan (in Chinese, Heitian) prefecture, in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) have sentenced a prominent imam to more than five years in prison for taking his son to an unsanctioned religious school to meet other children.
Abduheber Ahmet, the imam of the Dongbagh Mosque in Urchi township, in Hotan’s Qaraqash (Moyu) county, was initially detained in May 2017 and handed a five and a half-year jail term a month later, the ruling Chinese Communist Party secretary of Urchi township told RFA’s Uyghur Service.
The 46-year-old father of four “took one of his sons to an underground religious school” in Dongbagh village, the party secretary said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“It is said that he only took him once … I think it was four or five years ago … He took him there so that his son would meet and play with other children.”
Ahmet, a state-approved imam who had previously received a “five star” rating from officials, “revealed [his crime] himself during one of the confession meetings,” the secretary said, and received “leniency” because he admitted to it.