US demands release of Uygur doctor sentenced to 20 years’ jail while China calls for a halt to ‘smears’

Chinese foreign ministry confirms Gulshan Abbas was sentenced for crimes related to terrorist activities and ‘assembling a crowd to disrupt social order’

Brother and sister say Gulshan, who disappeared in September 2018, is being punished for her siblings’ human rights activism in the US

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Rushan Abbas holds up a photo of her sister, Gulshan Abbas. Rushan says Gulshan is being punished by China for her siblings’ acitivism in America. Photo: Handout

Published: 5:45pm, 31 Dec 2020Updated: 5:45pm, 31 Dec 2020

The United States called on Wednesday for the release of a Uygur Muslim medical doctor whose relatives say she was sentenced to 20 years in jail in China because of family members’ human rights activism in the United States.

The daughter of Gulshan Abbas told a briefing organised with the bipartisan US Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) that the family had recently learned her mother received the sentence in March last year on terrorism-related charges after disappearing in September 2018.

In Beijing on Thursday, a foreign ministry spokesman said Abbas was sentenced for the crimes of joining a terrorist organisation, helping terrorist activities and “assembling a crowd to disrupt social order”.

“We urge certain politicians in the United States to respect facts and stop fabricating lies and smearing China,” the spokesman, Wang Wenbin, told a news conference.

Abbas’ daughter, Ziba Murat, called the charges “preposterous.” Gulshan’s sister, Rushan Abbas, said the charges stemmed from activism by her and her brother Rishat Abbas, both of whom are based in the United States.

“We have committed to working to defend our people’s rights and advocate for justice, and now our sister is denied justice as a punishment,” Rushan said.

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