The U.S. government and human rights activists have called for the immediate release of a 19-year-old Uyghur university student serving jail time in Xinjiang for “advocating extremism” following her sentencing in March.
Kamile Wayit, a preschool education major at a university in China’s Henan province, was detained in December 2022 for posting a video on a social media app about November’s “white paper” protests across China, in which people held up blank sheets of paper to complain about COVID-19 restrictions and the lack of free speech.
Wayit was one of dozens of young people around China detained in relation to the protests, which were sparked by a fatal lockdown fire in an apartment building in Xinjiang’s regional capital Urumqi that killed about 40 Uyghurs.
Authorities apprehended Wayit while she was on winter break at her home in Atush, capital of Kizilsu Kyrgyz Autonomous Prefecture in Xinjiang, her brother, Kewser Wayit, told Radio Free Asia in a January report.
A subsequent report by RFA in April cited a state security agent who said Wayit was being detained pending an investigation into her communication with her brother, an engineer who lives in the United States, in addition to her social media post.
Earlier in June, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson told The Economistmagazine that authorities sentenced Wayit on March 25, but did not state the length of her sentence.
Pressing for her release
Wayit’s arrest has attracted international attention with the U.S. government, rights activists, scholars, professors and students demanding that Chinese authorities provide information on her case and release her.
“We are concerned by the PRC [People’s Republic of China] government’s continued detention of Kamile Wayit,” said a U.S. State Department spokesperson responding to an inquiry by Radio Free Asia on June 9.
“We call on the People’s Republic of China to ensure respect for her human rights and fundamental freedoms, including all fair trial guarantees, and to immediately and unconditionally release all unjustly detained persons,” the spokesperson said.
Maya Mitalipova, a Uyghur activist and director of the Human Stem Cell Laboratory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told RFA that she will advocate for Wayit until she is released.
“I will not be silent and will be speaking on behalf of Kamile until she is free,” Mitalipova said. “I will meet with U.S. government officials at the State Department and pressure the Chinese government to free Kamile.”
When RFA contacted the Prosecutor’s Office in Kezilsu Kyrgyz Autonomous Prefecture, an employee declined to provide information on Wayit's sentence because the case has to do with national security.
“Even Kamile Wayit’s family has no right to inquire about her case,” the staffer said, adding that family members must wait until they receive the final trial decision from the court.
State security staff previously told RFA that the families of those accused of committing a crime receive notice between seven to 37 days for regular criminal cases, during which time the Prosecutor’s Office will approve the arrest request.
The Public Security Bureau then reviews the arrest order, which takes two months. But there is no such rule on cases related to state security charges.
In the meantime, Wayit’s family says it is concerned about her mental health because she has experienced constant nightmares since 2017 when her father was taken to a “re-education” camp for two years. She also suffers from an eye disorder for which she was supposed to have surgery in Beijing this summer.
Translated by RFA Uyghur and RFA Mandarin. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.