Police in Urumqi, the capital of China’s Xinjiang region, detained Uyghur blogger Mirap Muhammad after an August 2018 post he made on social media. In 2019, he was formally arrested on accusations of “illegally providing intelligence to a foreign body” and has been held incommunicado since then.
Muhammad has published articles about sensitive topics, including Uyghur ethnic and human rights issues, and has spoken out on social media about these topics.
On August 15, 2018, Muhammad replied to a post on Twitter, since renamed X, about China denying building re-education camps in Xinjiang. In his post, he confirmed the existence of the camps, writing, “I am a Uyghur from Xinjiang, and this is all true. The exact numbers are unclear, but at least 300,000. In southern Xinjiang, there are no young adults left at home; all have been taken for ‘education,’ leaving only the elderly and children.” Shortly thereafter, Xinjiang police arrested Muhammad, according to news reports. CPJ was unable to independently verify or determine the exact date of his arrest.
On April 1, 2019, the Urumqi Municipal Procuratorate, or public prosecutor, in Xinjiang formally arrested Muhammad on suspicion of “the crime of illegally providing intelligence to a foreign body.” The case was transferred to the procuratorate by Urumqi police for review and prosecution on April 25 of that year, and subsequently handed over to the Urumqi Municipal Court.
That charge has been used to crack down on both Uyghur and Chinese journalists.
As of late 2024, CPJ was unable to determine whether a final verdict had been issued, whether Muhammad had been sentenced, where he is detained, or the conditions of his detention.
CPJ did not include Muhammad in its 2023 prison census because it was not aware that his arrest was related to his journalistic work at the time.
As of late 2024, Urumqi Public Security Bureau had not responded to CPJ’s request for comment sent via messaging app.