The arrest and sentence of a Uyghur filmmaker and director by the Chinese government has prompted international calls from human rights groups and activists for his immediate release.

Ikram Nurmehmet was sentenced by Chinese authorities to six-and-a-half years in prison on Oct. 11 for “separatism” and “terrorism” alongside four friends whom he had studied with in Turkey, as reported on by Radio Free Asia (RFA). They were tried by the Urumqi People’s Intermediate Court for alleged connections to Turkey-based organizations that sought independence for Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwestern China, called East Turkestan by Uyghurs.

Nurmehmet was arrested in May 2023 for accusations of garnering support and funding an East Turkestan while he was studying in Turkey between 2010 – 2016. Knowledgable sources told Human Rights Watch (HRW) that he was later convicted in January for “actively participating in terrorist activities.”

Nurmehmet said that during the trial, he was kept in a dark room for 20 days by authorities and tortured into confessing crimes he did not commit. These false confessions, and his Turkish residency permit, were the sole basis for his conviction.

Even though Nurmehmet’s parents and wife attended the trial, both were unaware of his conviction for more than half of a year until authorities notified them on August 23.

“More than seven years after the Chinese government began its abusive ‘Strike Hard Campaign’ in Xinjiang, the authorities continue to prosecute young Uyghurs like Ikram Nurmehmet on politically motivated charges,” explained Maya Wang, associate China director at HRW, in an HRW article published on Thursday. “Ikram Nurmehmet and the hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs who have been wrongfully imprisoned should be immediately freed.”

Former HRW executive director Kenneth Roth called for his release in a tweet on Saturday.

“China should immediately release Uyghur filmmaker and director Ikram Nurmehmet, who was sentenced to six and a half years in prison after being convicted on politically motivated charges,” Roth wrote. “The only evidence against him was a “confession” made under torture.”

Abduweli Ayup, a Norway-based activist and researcher who has investigated the fates of Uyghur students returning from Turkey, told RFA that Nurmehmet “kept his distance” from the Uyghur community in Istanbul, saying that he “stayed out of trouble and socialized only with people in the film industry”. After completing his studies, Nurmehmet moved to Beijing to produce films about the lives of Uyghurs.

An unnamed police officer from the Urumqi Yamalik police station informed RFA that Nurmehmet currently remains in a detention facility and that authorities have not transferred him to a prison. HRW confirmed that the detention center is Urumqi No. 1 Detention Center.

“Ikram Nurmehmet was initially taken to a four-story building across from the detention center,” said the police officer. “He was still in the detention center when I brought in new detainees.”

While China’s China’s Criminal Procedure Law prohibits the use of evidence obtained via torture, judges “rarely throw out such tainted evidence and almost never acquit defendants who were tortured to confess,” according to HRW.

AsAmNews is published by the non-profit, Asian American Media Inc.

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