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Abdukakhar Idris

In April or May 2003, Abdukakhar Idris, a Uyghur tailor and bookkeeper who fled Kashgar in April 2001, reportedly “disappeared” in Almaty, Kazakhstan and he is believed to have been detained and forcibly returned to China.

Idris was 22 years old when he reportedly went missing in Kazakhstan. Before fleeing to Kazakhstan, Idris was detained by Chinese authorities for three months in connection with his funding of a sports club which the authorities suspected of being a front for Uyghur oppositional activities.

Abdukakhar Idris was detained in the Kazakh border town of Panfilov on 19 April 2001 and reportedly sentenced to one year in prison by Panfilov District Court on 19 September 2001 for “illegally crossing the border”. He was released early, on 7 March 2002, after which he approached UNHCR for asylum. He then lived in hiding in Almaty, until he went missing around one year later after reportedly being taken from his home by Kazakh police.

No further information is available about his current whereabouts, legal status or state of health.

Sources:

Amnesty International (AI), Documented cases of Uighurs forcibly returned to the XUAR, available at: http://www.amnesty.ca/archives/resources/huseyin_celil/uighur_forced_returns_cases.doc

Amnesty International (AI) Report, People’s Republic of China: Uighurs fleeing persecution as China wages its “war on terror”, ASA 17/021/2004, 6 July 2004, available at: https://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA17/021/2004/en

Amnesty International (AI), Amnesty International concerns on Uighur asylum seekers and refugees, June 2005, available at: http://www.amnesty.ca/Refugee/Concerns_Uighur_June2005.pdf

Dolkun Isa, Uyghur situation in Central Asia countries (In Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan), OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting, Warsaw, 24 September – 5 October 2007, available at: http://www.osce.org/odihr/27056

Human Rights in China (HRIC) Report, Counter-Terrorism and Human Rights: The Impact of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, March 2011, available at: http://www.hrichina.org/research-and-publications/reports/sco; chapter on “Extraditions and Forcible Returns to China” available at: http://www.hrichina.org/content/5237#china

[Last updated: December 2011]