{"id":25218,"date":"2023-04-18T10:55:39","date_gmt":"2023-04-18T14:55:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hlrecord.org\/?p=25218"},"modified":"2023-04-18T15:48:12","modified_gmt":"2023-04-18T19:48:12","slug":"on-7th-anniversary-of-ekpar-asats-wrongful-imprisonment-hls-advocates-table-to-raise-awareness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hlrecord.org\/on-7th-anniversary-of-ekpar-asats-wrongful-imprisonment-hls-advocates-table-to-raise-awareness\/","title":{"rendered":"On 7th Anniversary of Ekpar Asat\u2019s Wrongful Imprisonment, HLS Advocates Shine a Spotlight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On Friday, April 7, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/clinics.law.harvard.edu\/advocates\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Harvard Law School Advocates for Human Rights (\u201cAdvocates\u201d)<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> set up a table to stand in solidarity with<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.uscirf.gov\/religious-prisoners-conscience\/forb-victims-database\/ekpar-asat\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ekpar Asat<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, brother of the first Uyghur HLS graduate<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rayhanasat.com\/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rayhan Asat<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (LLM \u201916).\u00a0 Over 200 students stopped by to learn about the injustice.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">April 7, in fact, marked exactly seven years since Ekpar was wrongfully imprisoned in a Xinjiang labor camp, along with more than 1 million Uyghurs and other Muslims who have been detained by the Chinese government since 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Before his incarceration, Ekpar was a widely acclaimed tech entrepreneur from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China. In February 2016, Ekpar traveled to the United States to take part in the prestigious International Visitors Leadership Program, sponsored by the State Department.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Just weeks later, upon his return to China, Ekpar disappeared. It was not until four years later that Rayhan learned her brother had been sentenced to 15 years in prison for \u201cinciting ethnic hatred and ethnic discrimination.\u201d<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Advocates co-president Ariella Katz &#8217;23 commented on the event:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This issue hits close to home for many of us, because Rayhan is our friend, and Ekpar\u2019s story makes clear that even<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> association with a powerful group like Harvard fails to provide protection against the abuses of the Chinese state. If we were born Uyghur, what is happening to Ekpar could have happened to any of us. Yet, because China is so powerful, the world is silent about these abuses. We hear about Ukraine and Myanmar but almost nothing about the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ushmm.org\/genocide-prevention\/countries\/china\/case-study\/current-risks\/chinese-persecution-of-the-uyghurs\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">crimes against humanity<\/span><\/a> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">perpetrated by the Chinese state.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Back in January 2021, Advocates put out a<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/clinics.law.harvard.edu\/advocates\/2021\/01\/01\/joint-statement-call-to-free-ekpar-asat-and-end-mass-atrocities-against-the-uyghur-community-in-xinjiang\/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">joint statement<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to call for Ekpar\u2019s release. The statement was signed by over<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> 70<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Harvard organizations, including HLS Immigration Project, HLS La Alianza, Harvard Law School Republicans, and more.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Students who attended last week\u2019s event took pictures with a poster of Ekpar\u2019s face over their own. Advocates plans to make a collage with the photos. Katz spoke to the purpose of the event:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We asked Harvard students to place Ekpar\u2019s picture in front of their face, to, but for a few moments, walk in his shoes\u2014and to send a clear message that we stand with him and the millions of Uyghur Muslims whose names China wants to make forgotten.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Across the globe, Rayhan Asat<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/05\/09\/us\/politics\/china-uighurs-arrest.html\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">continues to fight<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for her brother\u2019s release from London.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Friday, April 7, Harvard Law School Advocates for Human Rights (\u201cAdvocates\u201d) set up a table to stand in solidarity with Ekpar Asat, brother of the first Uyghur HLS graduate Rayhan Asat (LLM \u201916).\u00a0 Over 200 students stopped by to learn about the injustice. April 7, in fact, marked exactly seven years since Ekpar was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":289,"featured_media":25216,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,1507],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-25218","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hlsnews","8":"category-petitions-student-activism"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v14.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow\" \/>\n<meta name=\"googlebot\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"bingbot\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/hlrecord.org\/on-7th-anniversary-of-ekpar-asats-wrongful-imprisonment-hls-advocates-table-to-raise-awareness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"On 7th Anniversary of Ekpar Asat\u2019s Wrongful Imprisonment, HLS Advocates Shine a Spotlight - The Harvard Law Record\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On Friday, April 7, Harvard Law School Advocates for Human Rights (\u201cAdvocates\u201d) set up a table to stand in solidarity with Ekpar Asat, brother of the first Uyghur HLS graduate Rayhan Asat (LLM \u201916).\u00a0 Over 200 students stopped by to learn about the injustice. 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