WASHINGTON—U.S. Senators Jim Risch (R-Idaho) and Chris Coons (D-Del.) released the statement below on the 41st birthday of Ekpar Asat, a Uyghur entrepreneur arbitrarily detained by the Chinese Communist Party.
“Today marks the 9th birthday that Uyghur entrepreneur Ekpar Asat is spending in a Chinese prison. He has endured almost ten years in jail and multiple years in solitary confinement for a fabricated crime. This abuse has severely impacted his health. Today, Mr. Asat remains imprisoned in Aksu, an 11-hour train ride away from his family and friends who care deeply for him. We condemn in the strongest terms Mr. Asat’s arbitrary detention and call for his immediate and unconditional release.
“The Chinese Communist Party continues to commit genocide and other gross violations of internationally recognized human rights against Muslim Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang. It has detained more than one million Uyghurs since 2017 and subjects many more to unimaginable censorship and surveillance, state-backed forced labor programs, forced sterilizations, and forced abortions. This brutality must end. We call for an end to China’s gross violations of internationally recognized human rights and its persecution of ethnic and religious minority groups.”
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