Niyaz Kahar, Golden Tarim
Medium:Internet
Charge:Anti-State
Imprisoned:July 2009

Kahar, a reporter and blogger, disappeared during ethnic rioting in Urumqi in July 2009. According to the Uighur service of the U.S.-funded Radio Free Asia, his family announced for the first time in February 2014 that he had been detained and convicted of separatism and was being held in Shikho prison outside Shikho city in the far north of Xinjiang.

Kahar worked as a local reporter before launching the Uighur-language website Golden Tarim, which featured articles on Uighur history, culture, politics, and social life.

With the unrest surrounding the riots, it is difficult to determine the exact date of his arrest or where he was initially held. His family had questioned police and government authorities after his disappearance, but received no information, and assumed he had been killed until they were informed of his conviction in 2010, Radio Free Asia reported.

The family was told that Kahar was sentenced to 13 years in prison during a closed court session in Xinjiang's capital Urumqi, though they did not know the date of the trial. Kahar's sister Nurgul told RFA that during their search for Kahar, the family was told by court officials in Urumqi that he "published illegal news and propagated ideas of ethnic separatism on his website. He was charged with the crime of splitting the nation."

According to RFA, Kahar's family was given one 15-minute visit with the journalist in late 2010. "My son was very weak and thin and could not say a word, only weeping silently," RFA reported his mother as saying.

Thousands of Uighurs remain unaccounted for in Xinjiang. Many were detained during the 2009 crackdown or other security sweeps by Chinese authorities.

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