Huseyin Celil, a China-born Uygur described by Chinese
authorities as a prominent member of "East Turkistan" terrorist
organizations, was sentenced to life imprisonment on Thursday for
taking part in terrorist activities and plotting to split the
country.
At a court in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Celil was
convicted of separatism and terrorism charges. He was sentenced to
life on the separatism charge and 10 years imprisonment for the
charge of terrorism.
In accordance with Chinese law, Celil, 37, will serve life in
prison and be deprived of his political rights for life, according
to court documents released by the Intermediate People's Court of
Urumqi.
Chinese criminal law stipulates that a Chinese citizen's
political rights include the right to vote and stand for election,
the right to freedom of speech, of assembly and of
demonstration.
Celil was given refugee status by Canada in 2001. He was
arrested in Uzbekistan in 2006 and extradited to China soon
afterwards.
It is not known if Celil will appeal his conviction.
According to the court documents, Celil joined the East
Turkistan Liberation Organization (ETLO), a listed terrorist group
active in central Asia, in November 1997 and was appointed a senior
instructor in Kyrgyzstan.
While there, Celil allegedly recruited several people to the
ETLO and sent them to terrorist training camps in
Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, the documents said.
Celil was also active in another listed terrorist organization,
the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), for which he helped
raise funds, recruit members and organize training, the documents
said.
The documents said that in 1997, Celil met ETIM's former head
Hasan Mahsum, who was shot dead by the Pakistani army in 2003, and
worked directly under Mahsum's command.
Celil was a key member pushing for the alliance of the ETIM and
ETLO in 1998, the documents said.
Both groups were included in China's first batch of four
identified "East Turkistan" terrorist organizations, publicized by
the Ministry of Public Security in December 2003.
The authorities believe "East Turkistan" terrorists have close
links with Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, and have been responsible for a
series of murders, bombings, hijackings, and arsons in
Xinjiang.
The documents said Huseyin Celil, with the intention of
overthrowing the Chinese government and the socialist system, in
1997 provided 80,000 yuan (10,256 U.S. dollars) for the
establishment of a new terrorist group, named "Hizbollah", in
southern Guangdong Province.
The money was used to purchase guns and provide terrorist
training, the documents said.
The documents said the court had properly appointed a defense
lawyer to represent Celil and the time and venue of the trial was
publicized three days beforehand.
The same court on Tuesday sentenced secessionist Ablikim
Abdiriyim, son of Rebiya Kadeer, to nine years in prison on charges
of instigating and engaging in secessionist activities.
Rebiya Kadeer, a former businesswoman in China, was detained in
1999 on charges of harming national security. She was released on
bail on March 17, 2005 to seek medical treatment in the United
States.
The court document said Ablikim Abdiriyim had spread
secessionist articles over the Internet, turned the public against
the Chinese government, and written articles that distorted China's
human rights and ethnic policies.
Official statistics released in 2005 showed that what has been
coined by the central government as the "three evil forces" -
terrorists, separatists, and extremists - in Xinjiang had been
responsible for more than 260 terrorist incidents over the past
decade, killing more than 160 innocent people and injuring 440
others.
"Courts in Xinjiang will put sustained high pressure on the
'three evil forces'," Rozi Ismail, the president of the Higher
People's Court of Xinjiang, told Xinhua in a previous
interview.
"Stability is paramount in Xinjiang and it is mainly threatened
by the 'three evil forces'," said Ismail. "Our policy is to mete
out punishments as severe as the law allows."
But he also said courts should differentiate between crime
organizers and accomplices and must consider factors that can bring
about lenient punishments as the law stipulates - such as giving
police information which leads to the arrest of other suspects.
"Except for some hard-core criminals, many people involved in
'three evil forces' activities can be rehabilitated in prison," he
said.
Xinjiang police crushed a terrorist training camp in January, in
which 18 terrorists were killed and 17 others captured. The police
also seized 22 hand grenades, more than 1,500 half-finished
grenades, and some homemade explosives.
(Xinhua News Agency April 20, 2007)