2014 prison census - China: Gheyrat Niyaz (Hailaite Niyazi)
| Publisher | Committee to Protect Journalists |
| Publication Date | 17 December 2014 |
| Cite as | Committee to Protect Journalists, 2014 prison census - China: Gheyrat Niyaz (Hailaite Niyazi), 17 December 2014, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5498050415.html [accessed 5 June 2023] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
| Gheyrat Niyaz (Hailaite Niyazi), Uighurbiz | |
|---|---|
| Medium: | Internet |
| Charge: | Anti-State |
| Imprisoned: | October 1, 2009 |
Security officials arrested Niyaz, a website manager who is sometimes referred to as Hailaite Niyazi, in his home in the regional capital, Urumqi, according to international news reports. He was convicted of endangering state security and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
According to international media reports, Niyaz was punished because of an August 2, 2009, interview with Yazhou Zhoukan (Asia Weekly), a Chinese-language magazine based in Hong Kong. In the interview, Niyaz said authorities had not taken steps to prevent violence before ethnic unrest broke out in July 2009 in China's far-western Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.
Niyaz, who once worked for the state newspapers Xinjiang Legal News and Xinjiang Economic Daily, managed and edited the website Uighurbiz until June 2009. A statement posted on the website quoted Niyaz's wife as saying that while he had given interviews to international media, he had no malicious intentions.
Authorities blamed local and international Uighur sites for fueling the violence between Uighurs and Han Chinese in the predominantly Muslim Xinjiang region. In September 2014, Uighurbiz founder Ilham Tohti was sentenced to life imprisonment for separatism, according to international news reports.
According to the Independent Chinese PEN Center, in late 2014 Niyaz was being held in the Tianshan Detention Center, Urumqi, in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. The state of his health and the conditions under which he was being held were unknown.
