Detained in 1995; sentence and charges unknown.

Abdukerim Mettersun, aged about 28 at detention, is a Uyghur from Lop (Luo Pu), near Khotan. He was reportedly detained by police in August 1995 and taken to the detention centre of the Lop county Public Security (police) Bureau, on suspicion of handing out ”nationalist propaganda” to Uighur students. He is known to have been detained there for more than three years without being questioned or charged and was last confirmed to be held without charge at the end of 1998. Since being detained he has requested a defence lawyer, but his request has not been met. Further details about his case, including information on any subsequent charges or release, are not known.

According to Amnesty International, at the end of 1998, the Lop county Public Security Bureau detention centre reportedly held some 280 untried political detainees who had been detained for periods varying from a few months to nearly four years without being charged.

Sources:

Amnesty International (AI), People’s Republic of China: Gross Violations of Human Rights in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region – Prisoner Profiles, ASA 17/36/99, October 1999, available at: https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/144000/asa170361999en.pdf

U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China, Entry for “Abdukerim Mettersun” in Political Prisoner Database (CECC Record Number:  2010-00634), available at: http://ppdcecc.gov/QueryResultsDetail.aspx?PrisonerNum=8353

[Last updated: October 2019]