Qahar Mensur and Muhemmed Tursun

Qahar Mensur and Muhemmed Tursun

Sentence: Sentenced in 2011 to three years in prison for storing and distributing “illegal religious publications.”

According to Radio Free Asia, authorities in Shihezi municipality, East Turkestan, detained father and son Muslim religious leaders Qahar Mensur and Muhemmed Tursun on 1 October 2010 on suspicion of “distributing illegal religious works.”

On 12 April 2011, the Shihezi Intermediate People’s Court sentenced them to three years’ imprisonment in connection to storing and distributing “illegal religious publications.” The publication in question reportedly was an annotated edition of the Quran that had official government approval.

Sources cited in the RFA article said that authorities were punishing the father and son because Qahar Mensur had refused to comply with government demands, such as bringing government documents into mosques, while he served as muezzin for a mosque.

RFA did not report where the men are currently serving their sentences.

Sources:

Radio Free Asia (RFA), Shixenzide guman bilen tutqun qilinghan dada-Bala diniy zatlargha 3 yilliqtin qamaq jazasi bérilgen, 22 April 2011, available at: http://www.rfa.org/uyghur/xewerler/tepsili_xewer/dada-bala-04222011173710.html?encoding=latin

U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China, Entry for “Qahar Mensur” in Political Prisoner Database (CECC Record Number:  2011-00385), available at: http://ppd.cecc.gov/QueryResultsDetail.aspx?PrisonerNum=8879

U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China, Entry for “Muhemmed Tursun” in Political Prisoner Database (CECC Record Number:  2011-00386), available at: http://ppd.cecc.gov/QueryResultsDetail.aspx?PrisonerNum=8880

United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, China Chapter: Annual Report 2012, available at: https://www.uscirf.gov/sites/default/files/resources/2012ARChapters/china%202012.pdf

[Last updated: October 2019]