Additional Name(s): مەردان خېلىل

Gender: Male

Perpetrator: China

Ethnic Group: Uyghur

Religion or Belief: Muslim – Unspecified/Other

Reports of Torture: No

Reports of Medical Neglect: No

Current Status: Not Released

Religious Leader: No

Most Recent Type of Abuse: Detainment

Reason for Persecution: Ethnoreligious Identity Religious Instruction & Teaching

Nature of Charges: Unknown

Merdan Helil

Extra Bio Info:

Merdan Helil is detained for his religious activity and ethnoreligious identity.

In 2018, authorities in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) detained Helil and sent him to a "reeducation" center reportedly in relation to his attendance of extracurricular religious classes when he was in primary school in the mid-to-late 2000s. Helil's detention came amid mass detentions of largely Muslim ethnic minorities in XUAR in 2017 and 2018.

Helil's parents were also detained.

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