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Abdulla Jamal

Detained in April 2005; it is unclear whether he has been tried and sentenced; his whereabouts are unknown.

Abdulla Jamal (age at detention: 42), a middle school teacher at the No. 1 Middle School of Poskam County in Kashgar, was detained on 12 March 2005 and formally arrested in April 2005 in Kashgar. Amnesty International reported that he was arrested for writing a manuscript entitled, Disaster in the Oil Well, that the authorities claimed incited separatism. According to Radio Free Asia (RFA), the manuscript was a novel titled “Tragedies at the Oil Well.”

RFA reports that Abdulla Jamal initially had been detained in March 2005, along with three teachers (Abdushukur, Aynur Abdugheni and Aniqiz Ghurpur) and 17 or 18 students, ostensibly for involvement in a fight between ethnic Uyghur and Han Chinese students. According to AI, his detention took place after he submitted his manuscript for publication. Amnesty International believes he may be a prisoner of conscience, detained solely for exercising his right to freedom of expression.

Further details about the case, including Abdulla Jamal’s current whereabouts, are not known.

Sources:

Amnesty International (AI), Fear of Torture and Ill-Treatment – Abdulla Jamal, 16 June 2005, available at: https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/84000/asa170192005en.pdf

Radio Free Asia, Uyghur Youths, Teacher Detained After School Brawl, Residents Say, 21 June 2005, available at:  www.rfa.org/english/uyghur/uyghur_clash-20050621.html?searchterm=None

U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China, Entry for “Abdulla Jamal” in Political Prisoner Database (CECC Record Number:  2005-00097), available at:http://ppdcecc.gov/QueryResultsDetail.aspx?PrisonerNum=5593

[Last updated: October 2019]