Additional Name(s): Aierken Tuerxun, ئەركىن تۇرسۇن
Gender: Male
Perpetrator: China
Ethnic Group: Uyghur
Religion or Belief: Unspecified
Reports of Torture: No
Reports of Medical Neglect: No
Sentence: 19 Years, 10 Months' Imprisonment
Date of Detainment: March//2018
Date of Sentencing: May/5/2018
Current Status: Not Released
Religious Leader: No
Most Recent Type of Abuse: Imprisonment
Reason for Persecution: Ethnoreligious Identity
Nature of Charges: Harboring a Fugitive Incitement to Commit Crime & Violence
Erkin Tursun is imprisoned in relation to his ethnoreligious identity.
In March 2018, authorities in Ghulja County, Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) detained Tursun, a Uyghur television journalist and producer at state broadcaster Ili Television, reportedly in relation to a program he produced about the financial struggles of three Uyghur students.
On May 5, 2018, Tursun was sentenced to 19 years and ten months in prison "for harboring criminal[s] and inciting national enmity or discrimination."
Photo attributed to Xinjiang Victims Database
"Erkin Tursun" Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC)
"Erkin Tursun" Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
"Erkin Tursun" Xinjiang Victims Database
USCIRF Tweet May 3, 2022
"Erkin Tursun" Amnesty International
"Under pressure over Xinjiang, China takes aim at overseas Uighurs, academics" Reuters
"Xinjiang Authorities Jail Prominent Uyghur Television Host" Radio Free Asia (RFA)