(TibetanReview.net, Nov10, 2017) – For having admonished his son for drinking alcohol in violation of Islamic teachings 13 years ago, China has jailed a 67-year-old ethnic Uighur Muslim to 10 years in prison for “religious extremism”, reported the Uighur Service of Radio Free Asia (Washington) Nov 8.
Tursun Memet was arrested on May 18 by police in Ili Kazakh (Chinese: Yili Hasake) Autonomous Prefecture’s Ghulja (Yining) city, 13 years after he admonished his son Memet Imin Tursun for drinking in the lead up to his wedding day, the report cited his wife Heyrinsa Qasim as saying.
Memet’s three sons, including the one who had drunk alcohol, were also reported to have been arrested between February and June this year in the 4th district of Yengiyer township’s Egus village in connection with this incident. Tursun was sent to a political re-education camp while the other two other sons were also jailed. However, the reason for their convictions and their whereabouts were not clear.
The report quoted Qasim as saying Memet was sentenced “because he tried to stop his son from drinking alcohol”.
The district Communist Party secretary was reported to have told Memet that by trying to stop his sons from drinking alcohol he had caused them to become “religious extremists”.
The report said Qasim did not know how the incident had come to light so long after it happened.
