URGENT ACTION
Uighur Man faces FORCIBLE RETURN to china
Abudujilili Supi, a Uighur man who has been working as a muezzin – a leader and caller of prayers – in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, was taken away by Emirati police officers and is at risk of being forcibly returned to China, where Uighurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities are arbitrarily detained.
Abudujilili Supi was taken by Emirati plain-clothes security officers after he finished his afternoon prayers at the Abdullah bin Rawahah mosque in Dubai on 20 September, according to members of his family. According to family members, Abudujilili was approached by the security forces as he was exiting the mosque to walk to his home just down the street. They put him in an unmarked civilian vehicle and drove him away, refusing to tell his wife where they were taking him or why.
When Abudujilili’s wife tried to call him, his mobile was switched off. His family received no information for three days. On 24 September, he was allowed to call his wife briefly, telling her he had been detained and that he feared he would be returned to China. It is unclear where Abudujilili is being held.
Abudujilili’s family members told Amnesty International that they are very worried he will be sent back to China, where many Uighurs, Kazakhs and other predominantly Muslim minorities have been sent to political “re-education” camps in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR), in northwestern China. According to the testimonies of former detainees and relatives of those detained in these camps, detainees are forced to attend political indoctrination classes, sing political songs and chant slogans to praise the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party, and are tortured or otherwise ill-treated for not following the rules in the camps.
Abudujilili Supi left China for Egypt in 2012 and pursued Islamic studies at Cairo’s al-Azhar University. He went to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2017 to learn English. After finishing his English course, the UAE’s religious authorities granted him residency and employed him as a muezzin in March 2018 due to his impressive voice. He was working in several mosques in Dubai without any problem, according to his family.
Please write immediately in English, Arabic, or your own language calling on UAE authorities to:
•	Immediately disclose the fate and whereabouts of Abudujilili Supi and ensure that his family and lawyer of his choice have access to him and are informed of his location at all times;
•	Release Abudujilili Supi unless he is charged with a recognizable criminal offence;
•	Not return him to China or another country where he would be at risk of persecution, torture or other serious human rights violations or abuses.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 16 NOVEMBER 2018 TO:

Minister of Interior
Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan
Zayed Sport City
Arab Gulf Street, Sheikh Zayed Mosque
P.O. Box 398
Abu Dhabi
Fax: +971 2 402 2762
or +971 2 441 5780
Salutation: Your Highness

Foreign Minister
Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan
Ministry of Foreign Affairs & International
Cooperation
King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud street
Al Bateen
Abu Dhabi, UAE
Email: online at https://bit.ly/2ImbTw1
Salutation: Your Highness

Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi
HH Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan
Crown Prince Court
King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud street
P.O. Box 124
Abu Dhabi, UAE
Fax: +971 2 668 6622
Twitter: @MohamedBinZayed
Salutation: Your Highness
Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country. HIS EXCELLENCY MR SULAIMAN HAMID ALMAZROUI, Embassy of the United Arab Emirates, 30 Prince’s Gate, London SW7 1PT, 020 7581 1281, email pressuk@mofa.gov.ae 
Please check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date. 

URGENT ACTION
Uighur man faces Forcible Return to china
ADditional Information
Abudujilili Supi will be at risk of being arbitrarily detained in the so-called “transformation-through-education” camps if he is returned to China.
Since 2017, numerous detention facilities have been set up within the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR). Referred to as centres for “de-extremification”, “political study” or “transformation-through-education”, these are facilities in which people are arbitrarily detained for unspecified periods and forced to study Chinese laws and policies. People are often sent to these detention facilities if they are known religious practitioners, have relations with “foreign contacts”, or have themselves been caught up in “social stability” campaigns or have relatives who were involved in the same.
Media reports and information obtained by Amnesty International indicate that people in the XUAR are at great risk of arbitrary detention if they communicate with their relatives who live overseas. Authorities have detained people who receive phone calls from outside of China. Authorities have also tried to ensure that nobody uses encrypted messaging apps, forcing people to rely instead on domestic apps that have no encryption or other privacy safeguards. Details can be found in Amnesty International’s briefing “China: ‘Where are they?’ Time for Answers about Mass Detentions in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region”: https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa17/9113/2018/en/ 
Uighurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities in the XUAR have long suffered violations of their rights to freedom of religion and association and other human rights. Over the past years, authorities there have begun targeting them more comprehensively and on a larger scale. Techniques of repression include the widespread use of arbitrary detention, technological surveillance, increased use of heavily armed street patrols, enhanced security checkpoints and an array of other intrusive policies violating human rights.
In addition to information gathered by Amnesty International, numerous international media reports indicate that regional authorities began detaining Uighurs in large numbers in the spring of 2017, either sending them to administrative detention facilities or sentencing them to long prison terms. This crackdown has been applied not only to Uighurs, but also to members of other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups, including Kazakhs and Kyrgyz.
Name: Abudujilili Supi
Gender m/f: m

UA: 178/18 Index: MDE 25/9187/2018 Issue Date: 05 October 2018