China has executed a Uighur activist in a far northwestern city for attempting to "split the motherland" and possessing firearms and explosives, drawing condemnation from a human rights group, which said that evidence against him was insufficient.
Ismail Semed, who was deported to China from Pakistan in 2003, had told the court his confession had been coerced, but he was executed nevertheless on Thursday in Urumqi, the capital of the predominantly Muslim region of Xinjiang, Radio Free Asia (RFA) quoted his widow, Buhejer, as saying yesterday.
"When the body was transferred to us at the cemetery I saw only one bullet hole in his heart," Buhejer told the radio station, which receives funding from the US government.
A spokeswoman for the Urumqi Intermediate People's Court said a group of people had been executed on Thursday but said she had no knowledge of specific cases.
The Xinjiang regional government declined to comment.
Xinjian's Turkic-speaking Mus-lim Uighurs number between 8 million and 20 million
RFA said the charge of attempting to split the motherland stemmed from the allegation that Semed was a founding member of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, which has been outlawed by Beijing as a terrorist group.
But Nicholas Bequelin, a Hong Kong-based China researcher for Human Rights Watch, said: "The death penalty was widely disproportionate to the alleged crimes ... his trial did not meet minimum requirements of fairness and due process."
"We don't think there was sufficient evidence to condemn him," Bequelin said.
China has waged a harsh campaign in recent years against what it says are violent separatists and Islamic extremists struggling to set up an independent "East Turke-stan" in Xinjiang.
Xinjiang shares a border with Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia and Mongolia.
Buhejer met her husband briefly on Monday shortly after she had been informed of the decision to execute him, RFA said.
"[It was] only for 10 minutes, we didn't have too much time to talk ... Previously, he had said his leg hurt and his stomach hurt and other parts of his body hurt and that he needed medicine," she said.
She said her husband had told the court during his trial that his confession was coerced.
"They forced me," she quoted him as saying.
He told her to "take care of our children and let them get a good education," she said.
The couple has a young son and daughter.
Two other Uighurs who testified against Semed were also executed, RFA quoted unnamed sources in the region as saying.
Semed had previously served two prison sentences for taking part in an uprising in 1990. He fled to Pakistan after participating in demonstrations for religious freedom in 1997 that ended in the Gulja Massacre when government troops were sent in to stop the protest.
T. Kumar of Amnesty International in Washington said "hun-dreds, if not thousands, were killed or seriously injured" in unrest sparked by the incident in February 1997.
In a reference to another case now in court in Urumqi, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said on Thursday that Canadian diplomats had no right to be present at the hearing of Hussein Celil (also known as Yu Shanjiang, 玉山江), a Uighur accused by China of terrorism who was awarded Canadian citizenship two years ago.
Celil fled China in the 1990s and traveled last year to Uzbekistan, where he was detained and then extradited to China on terrorism charges.
He was cited in court documents related to Semed as a co-conspirator, Bequelin said.
China has not recognized Celil's Canadian citizenship.
GLOBAL ISSUE: If China annexes Taiwan, ‘it will not stop its expansion there, as it only becomes stronger and has more force to expand further,’ the president said China’s military and diplomatic expansion is not a sole issue for Taiwan, but one that risks world peace, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that Taiwan would stand with the alliance of democratic countries to preserve peace through deterrence. Lai made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). “China is strategically pushing forward to change the international order,” Lai said, adding that China established the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, launched the Belt and Road Initiative, and pushed for yuan internationalization, because it wants to replace the democratic rules-based international
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
The National Development Council (NDC) yesterday unveiled details of new regulations that ease restrictions on foreigners working or living in Taiwan, as part of a bid to attract skilled workers from abroad. The regulations, which could go into effect in the first quarter of next year, stem from amendments to the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及僱用法) passed by lawmakers on Aug. 29. Students categorized as “overseas compatriots” would be allowed to stay and work in Taiwan in the two years after their graduation without obtaining additional permits, doing away with the evaluation process that is currently required,
RELEASED: Ko emerged from a courthouse before about 700 supporters, describing his year in custody as a period of ‘suffering’ and vowed to ‘not surrender’ Former Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was released on NT$70 million (US$2.29 million) bail yesterday, bringing an end to his year-long incommunicado detention as he awaits trial on corruption charges. Under the conditions set by the Taipei District Court on Friday, Ko must remain at a registered address, wear a GPS-enabled ankle monitor and is prohibited from leaving the country. He is also barred from contacting codefendants or witnesses. After Ko’s wife, Peggy Chen (陳佩琪), posted bail, Ko was transported from the Taipei Detention Center to the Taipei District Court at 12:20pm, where he was fitted with the tracking
RSS