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Agence France-Presse

A court in Kazakhstan on Monday held a first hearing of a case against a China-born activist accused of inciting ethnic discord while opposing Beijing’s crackdown in its troubled Xinjiang region.
Serikjan Bilash, a naturalised Kazakh citizen born in China, was detained in March before being placed under house arrest.
The popular campaigner has helped put the spotlight on alleged rights abuses perpetrated against Turkic minorities in Xinjiang.
Critics say his arrest appeared to be the result of pressure from Kazakhstan’s economically powerful neighbour.




Bilash’s supporters – mostly ethnic Kazakhs born in China – packed a court in the Kazakh capital Nur-Sultan on Monday and cheered after a judge ruled that the case be transferred to a court in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city.
Bilash’s lawyer Aiman Umarova had appealed for the switch, citing Bilash’s desire to serve house arrest in his home city with his family, from whom he has been separated since his detention.
Uygurs in Xinjiang ‘didn’t choose to be Muslims’
The Communist Party’s dragnet in Xinjiang has swept up an estimated 1 million ethnic Uygurs and other mostly Muslim minorities into “vocational education centres” that numerous studies and reports say are instead harsh internment camps.
Bilash was detained soon after calling for an informational “jihad” to oppose Chinese pressure on minorities in Xinjiang in February.
He faces a maximum penalty of seven years in jail for the comments, which his supporters say have been taken out of context.

Umarova said the change of location for house arrest was a “partial victory” and called the initial decision to keep Bilash in the capital where he was flown after a dramatic hotel room detention “illegal”.
“If the crime they are alleging took place in Almaty, that is where the trial should be held,” she said.
Umarova said she believed there was no evidence of “hate speech” in the comments for which Bilash was being tried, which she said were directed towards the Chinese state rather than Chinese people.
“The whole world is talking about these camps [in China]. The whole world is talking about this discrimination,” Umarova said.
‘Prison-like re-education camps’ strain China-Kazakhstan relations
Speaking at the trial, Bilash said Beijing was perpetrating a “genocide” against Turkic minorities in Xinjiang while “Chinese soft power” was working to “occupy our minds” in the Central Asian state.
“More and more Kazakh politicians, more and more Kazakh writers, more and more Kazakh intelligentsia began working for the Chinese Communist Party to service Chinese expansion,” he said.
There are at least 1.5 million Kazakhs in Xinjiang, making them the second-largest Turkic group in the region after the Uygurs.
Kazakhs living in Kazakhstan have used Bilash’s informal rights group Atajurt to appeal to the Kazakh government to lobby China for their relatives’ release.
Kazakhstan has refused to register Atajurt, which volunteers say is due to pressure from major trade partner Beijing.
Kazakhstan’s foreign ministry said last year that China had allowed 2,500 ethnic Kazakhs to leave the country and enter Kazakhstan but refused requests for further information.


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Xinjiang

China-born opponent of Xinjiang crackdown Serikjan Bilash goes on trial in Kazakhstan

Serikjan Bilash was detained after calling for an informational “jihad” to oppose Chinese pressure on minorities in Xinjiang. Photo: AFP

This photo taken on May 31, 2019 shows watchtowers on a high-security facility near what is believed to be a re-education camp where mostly Muslim ethnic minorities are detained, on the outskirts of Hotan, in China's northwestern Xinjiang region. - As many as one million ethnic Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities are believed to be held in a network of internment camps in Xinjiang, but China has not given any figures and describes the facilities as "vocational education centres" aimed at steering people away from extremism. (Photo by GREG BAKER / AFP) / TO GO WITH AFP STORY CHINA-XINJIANG-MEDIA-RIGHTS-PRESS,FOCUS BY EVA XIAO

China’s ‘prison-like re-education camps’ strain relations with Kazakhstan as woman asks Kazakh court not to send her back

Sayragul Sauytbay, an ethnic Kazakh Chinese national and former employee of the Chinese state, is accused of illegally crossing the Kazakhstan border. She has spoken about China’s “re-education camps” in her court testimony. Photo: AFP

Supporters of the mostly Muslim Uighur minority and Turkish nationalists step on a poster of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong during a protest to denounce China's treatment of ethnic Uighur Muslims during a deadly riot in July 2009 in Urumqi, in front of the Chinese consulate in Istanbul, on July 5, 2018. Nearly 200 people died during a series of violent riots that broke out on July 5, 2009 over several days in Urumqi, the capital city of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, in northwestern China, between Uyghurs and Han people. / AFP PHOTO / OZAN KOSE

Supporters of the mostly Muslim Uighur minority and Turkish nationalists burn a Chinese flag during a protest to denounce China's treatment of ethnic Uighur Muslims during a deadly riot on July 2009 in Urumqi, in front of the Chinese consulate in Istanbul, on July 5, 2018. Nearly 200 people died during a series of violent riots that broke out on July 5, 2009 over several days in Urumqi, the capital city of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, in northwestern China, between Uyghurs and Han people. / AFP PHOTO / OZAN KOSE

A picture taken on July 13, 2018 shows Sayragul Sauytbay, 41, an ethnic Kazakh Chinese national and former employee of the Chinese state, who is accused of illegally crossing the border between the countries to join her family in Kazakhstan, sits inside a defendants' cage during a hearing at a court in the city of Zharkent. Secretive "reeducation camps" that allegedly hold hundreds of thousands of people in a Muslim-majority region of western China have become the focus of a court case in Kazakhstan, which is also testing the country's ties with Beijing. / AFP PHOTO / Ruslan PRYANIKOV

Xinjiang camps: UN ambassadors urge China to end detention of Uygurs in open letter

UN experts and activists say at least 1 million Uygurs and other Muslims are being held in detention camps in Xinjiang. Photo: AFP

This photo taken on June 5, 2019 shows Uighur men walking past a subway exit after attending Eid al-Fitr prayers, marking the end of Ramadan, in Kashgar in China's northwest Xinjiang region. - China has enforced a massive security crackdown in Xinjiang, where more than one million ethnic Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities are believed to be held in a network of internment camps that Beijing describes as "vocational education centres" aimed at steering people away from religious extremism. (Photo by Greg Baker / AFP)

FILE PHOTO: U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet attends a news conference at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, December 5, 2018. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo

FILE - In this Wednesday, July 8, 2009, file photo, heavily armed Chinese police officers patrol near a mosque in a Uighur neighborhood in the aftermath of riots in Urumqi in western China's Xinjiang region. Analysts say the Urumqi riots in 2009 set in motion the harsh security measures now in place across Xinjiang, where about 1 million Uighurs, Kazakhs and other Muslims are estimated to be held in heavily-guarded internment camps _ also called "re-education" camps _ which the Chinese government describes as vocational training centers.(AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)

Uygurs in Xinjiang didn’t choose to be Muslims, China says in white paper

Beijing has issued a white paper seemingly designed to defend its actions in Xinjiang where as least 1 million Uygurs are being held in detention centres. Photo: AFP

This photo taken on June 4, 2019 shows a man walking past a screen showing images of China's President Xi Jinping in Kashgar in China's northwest Xinjiang region. - China has enforced a massive security crackdown in Xinjiang, where more than one million ethnic Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities are believed to be held in a network of internment camps that Beijing describes as "vocational education centres" aimed at steering people away from religious extremism. (Photo by Greg Baker / AFP)

Uygurs, experts reflect on 10th anniversary of deadly riots in Xinjiang

This image taken on July 7, 2009 shows a large group of Han Chinese armed with sticks and shovels walking up a street in Urumqi. Photo: AFP

(FILES) This file photo taken on July 7, 2009 shows ethnic Uygur women grabbing a riot policeman as they protest in Urumqi in China's far west Xinjiang province. - A recurrence of the Urumqi riots which left nearly 200 people dead a decade ago is hard to imagine in today's Xinjiang, a Chinese region whose Uighur minority is straitjacketed by surveillance and mass detentions. (Photo by PETER PARKS / AFP) / TO GO WITH: China rights minorities Xinjiang, FOCUS by Eva XIAO

(FILES) This file photo taken on July 7, 2009 shows ethnic Uygur women (R) clashing with Chinese riot police as they protest in Urumqi in China's far west Xinjiang province. - A recurrence of the Urumqi riots which left nearly 200 people dead a decade ago is hard to imagine in today's Xinjiang, a Chinese region whose Uighur minority is straitjacketed by surveillance and mass detentions. (Photo by PETER PARKS / AFP) / TO GO WITH: China rights minorities Xinjiang, FOCUS by Eva XIAO

(FILES) This file photo taken on May 31, 2019 shows watchtowers on a high-security facility near what is believed to be a re-education camp where mostly Muslim ethnic minorities are detained, on the outskirts of Hotan, in China's northwestern Xinjiang region. - A recurrence of the Urumqi riots which left nearly 200 people dead a decade ago is hard to imagine in today's Xinjiang, a Chinese region whose Uighur minority is straitjacketed by surveillance and mass detentions. (Photo by GREG BAKER / AFP) / TO GO WITH: China rights minorities Xinjiang, FOCUS by Eva XIAO

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Popular campaigner has helped put the spotlight on alleged rights abuses perpetrated against Turkic minorities in China’s far western region
Lawyers win appeal to have trial transferred to a court in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s biggest city


Popular campaigner has helped put the spotlight on alleged rights abuses perpetrated against Turkic minorities in China’s far western region.


Kazakhstan

China-born opponent of Xinjiang crackdown Serikjan Bilash goes on trial in Kazakhstan

Popular campaigner has helped put the spotlight on alleged rights abuses perpetrated against Turkic minorities in China’s far western region Lawyers win appeal to have trial transferred to a court in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s biggest city

Popular campaigner has helped put the spotlight on alleged rights abuses perpetrated against Turkic minorities in China’s far western region

Lawyers win appeal to have trial transferred to a court in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s biggest city