Saudi Arabia to deport Uighur scholar to China within days

Uighur Muslim scholar, Aimadoula Waili's daughters have said a Saudi judicial official saw their father last week and informed him that he should be "mentally prepared" to be extradited to China "within days".

One of Waili's daughters, Nurin Hemdullah, told the paper that "We have not heard our father's voice for over a year, and it pains us knowing that he could be sent to China and be separated from him forever."

Waili, also known as Hemdullah Abduweli, visited Saudi Arabia in 2020 to perform the pilgrimage in the holy city of Mecca. After the Chinese consulate in Riyadh was reported to have requested his deportation, he feared that he would be detained and extradited if he attempted to leave the country.

He was caught by Saudi authorities in November 2020, however, and has been detained in Jeddah's Dhahban Central Maximum Security Prison ever since.

Waili, who held official residency in Turkey, has already been previously imprisoned twice by Chinese authorities due to his religious teachings.

Over the past few years, numerous reports and substantial evidence has emerged regarding the Chinese government's persecution of the Uyghur Muslims in the north-west province of Xinjiang.

The crimes against humanity include the detention of over one million Uyghurs and others in the so-called "re-education camps," the conducting of torture, and the sexual abuse and forceful sterilization of women.

Muslim-majority countries such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt, Pakistan, and Morocco have largely refused to condemn or investigate the persecution of the Uyghurs, and many of them have agreed to collaborate with Beijing in deporting Uyghurs abroad back to China.