Yiliyasijiang Reheman
Detained Since: July 7, 2017
Charges: N/A
Sentence: N/A
Biography: Yiliyasijiang Reheman and his wife Mairinisha Abuduaini were enrolled at Al-Azhar university in Egypt when Yiliyasijiang's student accommodations were raided in July 2017. In 2017, HRW reported, "Since July 3, 2017, authorities have arrested at least 62 Uyghurs who were living in Egypt without informing them of the grounds for their detention and have denied them access to lawyers and their families. China has in recent months demanded the return of Uyghur students living abroad as it cracks down on the Muslim minority, accusing the community of ‘separatism' and ‘religious extremism.'" Amnesty International has reported that Yiliyasijiang's family has reason to believe that Yiliyasijiang was one of the hundreds of Uyghur people that China pressured the Egyptian government to round up and return to China.
On July 4, 2017, Egyptian police raided Uyghur restaurants and homes in Cairo and detained hundreds of Uyghurs. On July 5, Yiliyasjiang and his family traveled to Kherdeqe, a city 5 hours from Cairo to take a flight to Istanbul, Turkey. They had obtained Turkish entry visas, but to not attract the attention of police, Mr. Yiliyasijiang Reheman decided to take a different flight than his family. His wife and child arrived safely arrived in Turkey on the same day, but Mr. Reheman were detained by police at the passport control at the Kherdeqe airport. On July 8th, Mr.Yiliyasijiang Reheman and his friend Shereli Shirzat, along with six other Uyghurs, were detained and transferred to Cairo's Tura prison.
In February 2019, Mr. Yiliyasijiang Reheman's family was informed that he is in detention in Kashgar, Xinjiang, China. The family has not heard anything about his whereabouts since then.
Congressional Advocate: Jan Schakowsky (D-IL)
Advocacy Partner:Scholars At Risk