Uyghur Genocide Database | Uyghur internment camps | reports emerged documenting the deaths of individuals in mass internment camps
Reports published throughout the year documented authorities’ continued use of torture and other forms of mistreatment against prisoners and camp detainees. As in the past reporting year, reports emerged documenting the deaths of individuals in mass internment camps and prisons or after they were held in camps or prisons. Examples include the following:
• Yaqup Haji, a 45-year-old Uyghur businessman and philan- thropist from Ghulja (Yining) city, Ili (Yili) Kazakh Autono- mous Prefecture, who died in or around September 2021 after being tortured in a mass internment camp or prison, where he had been held since 2018. A friend of Yaqup Haji told RFA that authorities had detained him for making contributions to religious causes, and that authorities had tortured him, includ- ing by holding him in solitary confinement.
• Zeynephan Memtimin, a 40-year-old Uyghur woman who died in 2020 in a prison in Keriye (Yutian) county, Hotan pre- fecture, where she was serving a 10-year sentence for violating family planning policies.62 Authorities previously held Zeynephan Memtimin in a mass internment camp beginning in 2017, for having fled a hospital where she was due to undergo a forced abortion in 2014.63 Officials did not disclose the cause of her death to relatives.
• Yaqup Hesen, a 43-year-old goldsmith who died on May 1, 2022, 20 days after being released from a prison in Ghulja (Yining) city, Ili (Yili) Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, where he had been held for three years. A neighborhood committee official told RFA that authorities had detained him for pray- ing. Family members sought medical treatment for Yaqup Hesen for an unspecified illness at multiple hospitals following his release. Yaqup Hesen’s 20-year-old son died, reportedly of grief, at his father’s funeral.
• Yaqup Haji, a 45-year-old Uyghur businessman and philan- thropist from Ghulja (Yining) city, Ili (Yili) Kazakh Autono- mous Prefecture, who died in or around September 2021 after being tortured in a mass internment camp or prison, where he had been held since 2018. A friend of Yaqup Haji told RFA that authorities had detained him for making contributions to religious causes, and that authorities had tortured him, includ- ing by holding him in solitary confinement.
• Zeynephan Memtimin, a 40-year-old Uyghur woman who died in 2020 in a prison in Keriye (Yutian) county, Hotan pre- fecture, where she was serving a 10-year sentence for violating family planning policies.62 Authorities previously held Zeynephan Memtimin in a mass internment camp beginning in 2017, for having fled a hospital where she was due to undergo a forced abortion in 2014.63 Officials did not disclose the cause of her death to relatives.
• Yaqup Hesen, a 43-year-old goldsmith who died on May 1, 2022, 20 days after being released from a prison in Ghulja (Yining) city, Ili (Yili) Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, where he had been held for three years. A neighborhood committee official told RFA that authorities had detained him for pray- ing. Family members sought medical treatment for Yaqup Hesen for an unspecified illness at multiple hospitals following his release. Yaqup Hesen’s 20-year-old son died, reportedly of grief, at his father’s funeral.
