China sends school principal to jail for 18yrs for organising seminar with Uyghur scholars

China has sentenced an Uyghur educator and headmaster of a high school in Korla of the Xinjiang region of northwest China for inviting two Uyghur intellectuals to give lectures and presentations. The principal of the high school has been sentenced to 18 years in jail. According to Radio Free Asia (RFA), Sherep Heyit had arranged and conducted a series of cultural activities in which he invited well-known Uyghur thinkers Yalqun Rozi as well as Abduqadir Jalalidin to give speeches. 

Further, since 2017, when Chinese authorities began arresting Uyghurs and other Turkic-speaking Muslims in a large network of "re-education" centres in Xinjiang, supposedly to deter religious extremism and terrorism, those two scholars have been in prison. According to RFA, around 1.8 million individuals are estimated to have been detained in the camps.  

Abdureshid Niyaz, an independent Uyghur scholar living in Turkey informed RFA in a report from 2021 that Chinese authorities have attacked educators, teachers as well as intellectuals in Xinjiang as they are the "brains of Uyghur society" and the most important method of carrying on Uyghur culture and identity. 

Former student of Sherep talks about his detention

Husenjan, a former student of Sherep’s who now lives in exile, claims that he was imprisoned by Chinese officials in Korla four years ago, but his punishment was unclear. Husenjan said, “I learned his sentence term of 18 years through a Chinese friend in inner China. I was very saddened by this tragic news, but I was not surprised at all because it has been three or four years since he disappeared.” He added that Sherep was an elite. 

According to RFA, Husenjan, who was previously aware of Sherep's detention, stated the principal was condemned because of his ties to the two Uyghur intellectuals who presented lectures.  

Furthermore, RFA spoke with a Chinese law enforcement officer in Korla who stated he was informed of Sherep's arrest and imprisonment and knew the officer involved. He also verified that Sherep has been serving an 18-year term, however, he had no idea where or what happened to the principal's members of the family. 

Sherep was fluent in both Chinese and English

Korla is the capital of Bayin'gholin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, China's biggest prefecture, and also the second-largest city in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Area, RFA reported. Husenjan added that Sherep had graduated from a Chinese institution outside of Xinjiang and was fluent in both Chinese and English in addition to his native tongue. Sherep was among the first Uyghur elites to be taken by police as the Chinese government ramped up its crackdown on the Uyghurs in 2017, he claimed. 

As per another former pupil who now resides in Japan, Sherep swiftly came to prominence in Uyghur society in Korla and throughout Xinjiang as a result of his conscientious work ethic and educational background. 

(Image: AP)