AP: Muslims in China Suffer from Highest Arrest Rate in World

Leaked data showed that nearly one in 25 people (4% of the whole population) belonging to the Muslim Uyghur minority in a province of China were sentenced to prison on terrorism charges, the highest rate of imprisonment known in the world.

Data obtained by the Associated Press (AP), a US news agency, included the names of more than 10,000 Uyghurs who were sent to prison in Kunaşehir province alone, which is located in southern Xinjiang.

In recent years, China has launched a brutal crackdown on Uyghur Muslims and has detained more than one million of them since 2017, in “anti-terror” camps, according to the United Nations.

The list revealed by the “Associated Press” is the largest that has appeared so far with the names of the imprisoned Uyghurs.

The figures of the list are confirmed by families of the victims and rights groups who said that for years China carried out a “long-term prison” system to keep the Uyghurs under control, as Beijing uses the law as a weapon of repression.