A Canadian Muslim activist has been tortured while in detention in China, his family reported this week.
Huseyincan Celil, a Canadian citizen and Burlington, Ontario resident, was arrested by authorities in Uzbekistan where he was visiting family on March 26, apparently under pressure from the Chinese communist regime. He was deported to China and has been in detention since that time awaiting trial.
His sister, who attended the start of his trial last week in the city of Urumqi in northwestern China, said Celil complained he was tortured during his first two weeks in Chinese custody and forced to sign a statement against his will.
Celil was told if he didn't sign, he would be "buried alive and disappear without any clues," his sister told a Uighur Muslim group in Canada on Monday.
"He was not given food, he was subjected to questioning 24 hours a day, and sometimes he was left under very strong lights to traumatize him," the group quoted Celil's sister as saying.
She said Celil rejected the statement he was forced to sign.
"I was forced to sign on a document that I never understood and did not know exactly what it was," he was quoted. "My history is crystal clear. I did nothing wrong in my whole life. Therefore, if anything comes up from this 'ready document' I was forced to sign, I do not take responsibility for that, since it has nothing to do with me."
Celil is an outspoken advocate of the rights of Uighur Muslims in the northwestern Chinese province of Xinjiang and for the region's independence.
He was detained and tortured previously in China for his activities and escaped the country in 1997. He was granted U.N. refugee status in Turkey and immigrated to Canada in 2000.
Both Celil's family inside China and the Canadian government have had trouble meeting Celil as the Chinese regime refuses to recognize his Canadian citizenship and has been holding him at an unknown location.
Celil is accused of being involved in a terrorist plot in 2000, but Amnesty International says those charges can't be verified, and notes that Celil was in Turkey at the time.
Celil's supporters say the charges are trumped up and that the Chinese communist regime is using a guise of fighting terrorism to repress the ethnic Uighur population in Xinjiang.
Several ministers in the Canadian government have raised Celil's case directly with the Chinese authorities. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has also made the Celil case a key issue in talks with the Chinese.
"When it comes to the specific case of Canadian citizens who are mistreated, we have an absolute moral obligation to stand by those citizens and express our views," Harper told media in November, prior to a meeting with Chinese leader Hu Jintao.
However, Canadian diplomats were noticeably absent from the start of Celil's trial last week, something that is said to have upset the prime minister and shown that some Canadian diplomats in Beijing have not been taking the case seriously enough.
Uyghur Canadian Association president Mehmet Tohti, who provided the comments from Celil's sister in an email to media, said the family members who attended the opening of Celil's trial were "scared to death" to recount what they heard. As they were the only witnesses on-hand in the court, it would be clear who leaked Celil's claims of torture.
The family members are now staying in Urumqi, waiting to meet with Canadian officials who have been deployed from Beijing.
They were told by Chinese police that the trial would not continue until after the Chinese New Year, which falls on Feb. 18.