> Over the past decade, China has been using the global police agency Interpol to target political refugees and dissidents and had asked for Idris to be added to the agency’s most-wanted “red notice” list. Zeynure says Turkish officials let him board the flight [after an interrogation by Turkish border police] knowing he would be arrested when he arrived in Morocco.
> […]
> Soon after she received news of her husband’s arrest, Zeynure got an unexpected phone call from her parents in Xinjiang. She had been cut off from her family since they had visited her in Turkey in 2016 and been imprisoned for several months upon their return to China.
> Her parents had a chilling message. “They said, ‘We know your husband is not with you. Maybe we can help you,’” says Zeynure. “I knew there must be some police there with them and just acted like I didn’t know anything. But they persisted and told me not to do anything to help my husband. ‘Don’t do anything except feeding your children,’ they told me. ‘Don’t say anything bad about China.’”
> […]
> But their relief at finding a place of safety overseas was short-lived. Beijing has become a global leader in targeting dissidents and critics living in exile through the use of electronic surveillance, threats and physical assault. But what Idris was subjected to was a newer tool of repression: using China’s growing economic leverage to force other countries to bend to its will, including detaining and deporting Uyghurs it wants to silence.
> After the call from Idris, and discovering he had an Interpol red notice hanging over him, Zeynure knew she only had a short window of opportunity to try to stop his extradition to China. She immediately contacted as many Uyghur support groups as she could find listed online in Europe and the US and begged for help. She was fearless despite China having already shown a willingness to go after the relatives of other targets.
> Zeynure started protesting with her children at the Moroccan embassy in Istanbul, and posting updates on social media. To her surprise, copycat protests soon followed in Morocco demanding Idris’s release. Moroccan officials were forced to put out a statement saying his deportation was a matter for the courts to decide.
> In early August 2021, Interpol cancelled Idris’s red notice after being pressed to review his case by human rights groups. But that did not stop a Moroccan court later ruling he should still be extradited to China. Zeynure says there was huge diplomatic pressure from Beijing, which made little sense for someone who had not been convicted of any crime or act of terrorism. “I was told the Chinese government said it would close all its factories in the country if Morocco released him.”
> In late December 2021, the UN intervened and asked for time to conduct a review of Idris’s case, citing the risk he could face torture or arbitrary detention if sent back to China. It later requested his release, but Morocco still appeared unwilling to upset the Chinese government, which was demanding his extradition. Turkey also appeared unwilling for Idris to return. “If the Turkish government had said ‘we want Idris, you can send him’, maybe they [Morocco] would have, but they didn’t care about his case any more. From the beginning, Turkey didn’t get involved because it doesn’t want to be an enemy with China now.”
> As the months and then years passed with no resolution, Zeynure remained courageous in continuing to protest and keep Idris’s name in the media spotlight. Her husband needed her more than ever. Stuck in prison and permitted just three short calls a week to his family, Zeynure says Idris was losing hope. “He was very afraid and couldn’t sleep. Every time the prison door opened, he said, ‘I thought they would deport me to China’.” Zeynure says the children were also suffering, especially their youngest, now aged six. “She became very sensitive and not really a social child any more.”
> But as Idris entered his fourth year in detention without charge, there was hope at last of a route to safety from an unlikely source: the new Trump administration.
steve09089 on
I don’t get how my family members can defend China and pretend this is not an issue “because everyone does it”, or “it’s really justified actually” or “it actually isn’t as bad as the media says it, they’re just western propaganda” or “it’s not real”.
2 Comments
> Over the past decade, China has been using the global police agency Interpol to target political refugees and dissidents and had asked for Idris to be added to the agency’s most-wanted “red notice” list. Zeynure says Turkish officials let him board the flight [after an interrogation by Turkish border police] knowing he would be arrested when he arrived in Morocco.
> […]
> Soon after she received news of her husband’s arrest, Zeynure got an unexpected phone call from her parents in Xinjiang. She had been cut off from her family since they had visited her in Turkey in 2016 and been imprisoned for several months upon their return to China.
> Her parents had a chilling message. “They said, ‘We know your husband is not with you. Maybe we can help you,’” says Zeynure. “I knew there must be some police there with them and just acted like I didn’t know anything. But they persisted and told me not to do anything to help my husband. ‘Don’t do anything except feeding your children,’ they told me. ‘Don’t say anything bad about China.’”
> […]
> But their relief at finding a place of safety overseas was short-lived. Beijing has become a global leader in targeting dissidents and critics living in exile through the use of electronic surveillance, threats and physical assault. But what Idris was subjected to was a newer tool of repression: using China’s growing economic leverage to force other countries to bend to its will, including detaining and deporting Uyghurs it wants to silence.
> After the call from Idris, and discovering he had an Interpol red notice hanging over him, Zeynure knew she only had a short window of opportunity to try to stop his extradition to China. She immediately contacted as many Uyghur support groups as she could find listed online in Europe and the US and begged for help. She was fearless despite China having already shown a willingness to go after the relatives of other targets.
> Zeynure started protesting with her children at the Moroccan embassy in Istanbul, and posting updates on social media. To her surprise, copycat protests soon followed in Morocco demanding Idris’s release. Moroccan officials were forced to put out a statement saying his deportation was a matter for the courts to decide.
> In early August 2021, Interpol cancelled Idris’s red notice after being pressed to review his case by human rights groups. But that did not stop a Moroccan court later ruling he should still be extradited to China. Zeynure says there was huge diplomatic pressure from Beijing, which made little sense for someone who had not been convicted of any crime or act of terrorism. “I was told the Chinese government said it would close all its factories in the country if Morocco released him.”
> In late December 2021, the UN intervened and asked for time to conduct a review of Idris’s case, citing the risk he could face torture or arbitrary detention if sent back to China. It later requested his release, but Morocco still appeared unwilling to upset the Chinese government, which was demanding his extradition. Turkey also appeared unwilling for Idris to return. “If the Turkish government had said ‘we want Idris, you can send him’, maybe they [Morocco] would have, but they didn’t care about his case any more. From the beginning, Turkey didn’t get involved because it doesn’t want to be an enemy with China now.”
> As the months and then years passed with no resolution, Zeynure remained courageous in continuing to protest and keep Idris’s name in the media spotlight. Her husband needed her more than ever. Stuck in prison and permitted just three short calls a week to his family, Zeynure says Idris was losing hope. “He was very afraid and couldn’t sleep. Every time the prison door opened, he said, ‘I thought they would deport me to China’.” Zeynure says the children were also suffering, especially their youngest, now aged six. “She became very sensitive and not really a social child any more.”
> But as Idris entered his fourth year in detention without charge, there was hope at last of a route to safety from an unlikely source: the new Trump administration.
I don’t get how my family members can defend China and pretend this is not an issue “because everyone does it”, or “it’s really justified actually” or “it actually isn’t as bad as the media says it, they’re just western propaganda” or “it’s not real”.