Thread by @WilliamYang120

RFA learned of another #Uyghur serving a lengthy prison term for a seemingly harmless act, in this case helping family members of other Uyghurs previously detained by authorities. rfa.org/english/news/u…

Yusup Saqal, a well-known figure and charity organizer for Uyghur soccer in the town of Karamay (in Chinese, Kelamayi), was sentenced to 14 years behind bars in late 2018 on charges of “taking criminals under his wing,” Uyghur sources with knowledge of the situation said.

A Uyghur from Karamay who now lives in exile said authorities arrested Yusup, whose real name is Yusupjan Memtimin, in 2017.

In 2014, Yusup drove the wife and children of a detained Uyghur to the detention facility for a prearranged meeting. That incident was later pointed to as the reason for Yusup’s own arrest and detention, according to the Uyghur in exile.

When RFA contacted relevant Chinese authorities in Karamay to confirm the information, one Chinese official at Karamay’s political and legal bureau confirmed that Yusup been detained and sentenced.

“[He] was sentenced to 14 years in prison,” he said.

Yusup resigned from a government job in Karamay in the 1990s and started a wholesale business selling Korla pears and Turpan grapes grown in Xinjiang to other Chinese provinces, said Memetjan, a Uyghur from Karamay who now lives in Norway.

At one time, Yusup clashed with Chinese businessmen, and the police arrested him on suspicion of “intentionally destroying ethnic unity,” Memetjan said.

Yusup also was once summoned by China’s national security police in 2014 and interrogated about why he had given up drinking alcohol, said the first unnamed Uyghur source who lives in exile.

Abdureshid Niyaz, a Uyghur exile based in Turkey and the former editor of Karamay’s Oil Spring Magazine, said Yusup became a target of suspicion by Chinese authorities after he had embraced a more Islamic lifestyle.

“When I was arrested and interrogated by the Chinese police in 2002, they had asked me about Yusupjan,” Abdureshid Niyaz told RFA. “The Chinese police wanted to find ‘a problem’ with him.”

Abdureshid said that as a young public figure in the Uyghur society, Yusup offered help to other Uyghurs who came to Karamay in search of a job or a better life.

He also tried to help more people who had lost relatives to China’s arbitrary detention campaign after it began in 2014.

Because of this, Yusup was regularly interrogated by the police, he said.

“I think the Chinese government sentenced him for 14 years in prison not because he committed any crime but because he was someone who could unite the people and bring cause for justice,” he said.

Yusup’s more than two decades of charity work toward developing Uyghur soccer was another reason why the Chinese had targeted him, Abdureshid said.