Uyghur tech entrepreneur, Ekpar Asat, has been held in solitary confinement since 2019

Ekpar Asat developed a social media platform for Uyghur. He was allegedly convicted, without any known trial, on charges of inciting ethnic hatred and ethnic discrimination, then sentenced to 15 years in prison.

There are reports he is being subject to isolation, malnutrition and lack of any care as his family fear for his well being.

Up to a million Uyghurs are being detained in camps which the Chinese Communist Party refers to as “re-education camps,” but have been described as “concentration camps”.

His sister, human rights lawyer Rayhan Asat, has been advocating for his release. She says her last contact with her brother was in a proof of life video showcased by the Chinese Government.

“In that video … he looked gone, he looked a shadow of his former self,”

she tells Ticker News. 

Rayhan Asat adds that all his communication is heavily monitored so that he can’t reveal the overall nature of his situation.

“The truth is, he is in solitary confinement,”

she says.

Currently, the Winter Olympics are being held in Beijing where an Uyghur athlete was selected to be the torchbearer at the opening ceremony.

Asat says it “add[ed] insult to injury” as she doesn’t see how things can improve.

Ticker’s Holly Stearnes asked the Human Rights Lawyer, “For a country that has been condemned over its treatment of the Uyghurs… why did they choose an Uyghur athlete to be the torchbearer at the opening ceremony?

“It is whitewashing a genocide,” she says, “Now this kind of tokenising … to showcase that there is no torture, there is no genocide, everything is wonderful in China, ethnic communities around China get along well … that is a kind of message the Chinese government is trying to send to sanitise what’s happening in Xinjiang, but the world is not buying into it.”

Rayhan Asat told Ticker News that if she could speak with her brother right now her message would be: 

“I love him deeply. He’s my best friend and the best brother I could ever hope for and incredibly proud of him, proud of his resilience, kindness, and the example that he exemplified for me to be a better person every day and I want him to know he’s not forgotten. I’m fighting for him every day,” she says.

The Winter Olympic’s raises awareness

“The Olympic’s actually has been, in the saddest way, an opportunity to highlight what’s happening,” she says.

 Asat says while people are watching the games and cheering for the athletes, it’s important to remember the abuses happening to small ethnic communities in China.

“Shame and name the perpetrators and tormentors that have my brother and make sure the Chinese government knows that the international community cares,”

she says.

Rayhan Asat hopes the increased attention on the atrocities being committed by the Chinese government, can deter the Chinese government’s repression. 

Savannah Pocock reports