20 September 2019 :
Uyghur intellectual Tashpolat Tiyip may be facing imminent execution by the Chinese government after two years of languishing in secret detention, Amnesty International warned on 9 September 2019.
Tiyip was the president of Xinjiang University, and was leaving for Germany with students for a conference in 2017 when he was forcibly detained, one of hundreds of prominent Uyghurs who have disappeared as Chinese authorities have relocated millions of these Muslim citizens to concentration camps in the country's west.
Tiyip underwent a secret and "grossly unfair" trial where he was convicted of "separatism" and sentenced to a "suspended death sentence" — where the detainee is eligible for commutation after two years provided they have committed no other crimes — two years ago this September, according to Amnesty International. The rights group reports that he is being held in unknown conditions, and that his execution could be imminent, as the two-year reprieve period comes to an end this month.