Turkey: Uighurs file criminal complaint against Chinese officials for human rights abuses

A group of Uighurs living in Turkey whose relatives are either jailed or missing in China had filed a criminal complaint on Tuesday with a Turkish prosecutor's office against 112 Chinese government officials. They have accused the 112 officials of committing genocide, crimes against humanity, torture, as well as rape in the far west of the Xinjiang region. The Camp Detainees Forum, which comprises Turkey-based families of Uyghur or Uighur camp captives, held a news conference in front of the Çağlayan Justice Palace in Istanbul to announce the lodging of the complaint by 19 Uighurs in an attempt to seek justice, Radio Free Asia reported.  

It is worth noting that Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, as well as Chen Quanguo, the former Communist Party secretary of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, are among the Chinese authorities mentioned in the lawsuit for their involvement in the mistreatment of 116 inmates. 

Furthermore, the event was attended by representatives from different Turkish political groups, human rights lawyers and defenders, Turkish civil society authorities, journalists, and representatives from Uighur organisations like the Uighur Meshrep Foundation, Union of Cities, Federation of East Turkistanis, as well as the East Turkistan Human Rights Watch Association. 

The complaint of the 19 plaintiffs was built on the concept of universal jurisdiction

According to Gülden Sönmez, a human rights campaigner and attorney for the complainants in the case, the complaint was built on the concept of universal jurisdiction, which empowers national courts to prosecute people for significant offences against international humanitarian law. Sönmez told Radio Free Asia that she anticipates the Turkish court system issuing arrest orders for all 112 Chinese authorities and bringing them to account for their alleged offences. 

Highlighting the fact that “This is not a case with a political motive”, Sönmez explained, “Among the complainants are our Turkish compatriots. The Turkish judiciary has a duty to initiate a legal process involving at least Turkish citizens detained in China,” Radio Free Asia reported. 

China has detained nearly 1.8 million Uighurs and Turkic minorities

In addition to this, China is thought to have detained nearly 1.8 million Uighurs as well as other Turkic minorities in Xinjiang detention centres. The government claims that the prisons are vocational training institutes and denies widespread and recorded complaints that detained Uighur Muslims have been mistreated and tortured. 

Meanwhile, this protest came as other nations took action against Chinese authorities accusing them of crimes against some of Xinjiang's 12 million primarily Uighur Muslims. Public denouncements, economic sanctions, import prohibitions on commodities created using Uighur forced labour, and diplomatic boycotts of the Beijing Winter Olympics in February are among the measures taken. 

(Image: AP/ ANI/ Representative Image)