Canadian to be executed in China

[tuvor]

TORONTO -- Foreign Affairs is scrambling for information after word that a Canadian man being held in China could be executed as early as this week.

Huseyin Celil's sister in China called the imprisoned man's wife in Burlington, Ont. earlier last week, saying he was being held in a prison in western China and could be executed by Aug. 10.

Celil's wife, Kamila Telendibaeva, said a police officer from the Kashgar area leaked the details to her sister-in-law, who has been trying to find his whereabouts for weeks.

Celil was arrested in Uzbekistan in March while visiting his wife's family.


Huseyin Celil, of Burlington, Ont., was arrested on March 26 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. (CP PHOTO/ho)

http://www.canada.com/globaltv/national/story.html?id=280ca8bc-fd71-4c6c-959c-97ad0afffae3

(I emailed My NDP MP Catherine Bell, Jack Layton, Harper and MacKay. Not sure what else can be done. Hopefully Mr. MacKay can be a "hero" to Mr. Celil, too.)

[tuvor]

1. 2 votes, and no replies? This calls for a kick.

[Spazito]

2. The article is very confusing, imo

It says Mr. Celil was extradited but doesn't say from where. Was it from Uzbekistan or Canada? I am assuming it was from Uzbekistan but not sure. If he was extradited from Uzbekistan without the Canadian government being informed given he is a Canadian citizen, it reminds me of the Mahar Arar tragedy.

I hope the Canadian government is pressing Uzbekistan for details as well.

[tuvor]

3. Arrested in Uzbekistan, extradited from there to China.

That's how I understood it on a radio broadcast today.

[Spazito]

4. Thanks, it seems our government needs to find out why they were

not informed prior to the extradition given he was a Canadian citizen.

[Bassic]

5. Ah dammit. Given China's record, I don't think this guy stands

a snowball's chance in Hell, but we can always hope.

[MrPrax]

6. Who is this guy?

From the Original Post (OP):

"...It also wouldn't recognize Celil's Canadian citizenship, which he earned in November of last year."

"...In 1994, Celil was arrested in China on charges of forming a political party, his wife said. After serving just a month in prison, he escaped, eventually buying false documents to enter Uzbekistan. He eventually landed in Turkey before being granted refugee status in Canada in 2001.

Meanwhile, in China, a court sentenced him to death in absentia for his alleged role in the anti-government political movement. His wife believes the conviction will allow the Chinese to speed up a possible execution.

Born in China's far-western Xinjiang province, Celil is a Uighur Muslim, Turkic-language minority group that has long fought with the Chinese government for greater freedom...."

Um...I'll sit tight until we get more information...from this he could be a spook just as easily as innocent.

(Who in their right mind would GO BACK anywhere near China if they had already been given the gears once -- the Chinese don't fuck around on stuff like this and rendition, like Arar, ONLY happens to people caught up in the US foreign policy drag-net, not China's)

[iverglas]

7. Reuters update

http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-08-09T111348Z_01_PEK82538_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-SECURITY-CHINA-COL.XML&archived=False

The Chinese govt's statement contradicts the report of the conviction/sentence in absentia:

"Huseyincan is a Chinese citizen suspected of having taken part in East Turkestan terrorist activities," a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

"The case is being handled according to law and no verdict has been reached yet," he said in a prepared brief statement read to Reuters by telephone.

-- although that could be disingenuous, and be referring to a subsequent charge.

If he renounced his Chinese citizenship in taking Canadian citizenship, China would not necessarily be bound by that. The renunciation might have to be formal, and be made to a Chinese government official or agency. And renunciation might not be accepted, or be effective against prosecution for crimes. This is the case for the US (easiest country to find info about quickly):

http://law.enotes.com/everyday-law-encyclopedia/dual-citizenship

The U. S. Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) stipulates that anyone wishing to renounce U. S. citizenship must do more than merely claim allegiance to another government. Americans who face prosecution in the United States or who owe back taxes, for example, cannot merely become naturalized citizens of a country that does not have an EXTRADITION agreement with the United States. Under the terms of INA, anyone who wishes to renounce U. S. citizenship must appear in person before a U. S. consular or diplomatic official and sign an oath of renunciation. This must be done in a foreign country (usually it can be done at a local U. S. Embassy or consulate); the renunciation cannot be executed in the United States proper. Failure to follow these conditions will render the renunciation useless for all practical purposes. Moreover, those who renounce their U. S. citizenship are still liable for any tax obligations they have incurred and may still be liable for military service. If they have committed a crime in the United States, they can still be prosecuted.

That's not to say that anything the Chinese government might be doing is acceptable, just that by treating the individual as a Chinese citizen it may be well within the bounds of the kind of citizenship law applied by many countries, and a third country might be acting just as properly in recognizing China's claim on him. Of course, a country can have a valid claim on an individual, for extradition for the purposes of criminal prosecution even if s/he does not have the citizenship of that country.

(Canada would certainly not honour an extradition request where the underlying offence was a purely political crime.)

[MrPrax]

9. No argument...

I'll go one step further and not be nearly as polite as you...

The Chinese government can't be trusted at all -- I always assume they are lying until proven otherwise...(that's why I sorta wonder exactly why the CBC would bother with a bureau there? To shovel 'Chinese business prosperity' propaganda I suppose...

but I digress...

The dude was grabbed in Uzbekistan and turned over to the Chinese -- the fellow probably should have checked just how much co-operation there was between the two governments before --um--visiting relatives...as opposed to having the relatives come visit him.

It's the Canadian angle I don't get -- this guy just became a citizen immediately after the manadatory 5 year? It's was political asylum, no?

OK -- so this guy gets a newly minted Canadian passport and almost immediately runs back to Uzbekistan to 'visit' people? He's either nuts or a spook?

If he is a genuine little freedom fighter guy, then more power to him and my sympathies...BUT...looking at the paranoid state of Uzbekistan and the fact that the Uyghur Canadian Association champions the Falan Gong and Tibet will never sit well with the Chinese gov't.

Side note: those gitmo POWs that the US say is innocent, but is holding them anyway because they won't extradict to China, are Uyghur.

The planet's full of political prisoners...could be this poor fellow has a kidney someone wants :eyes:

[iverglas]

10. some things

just remind me of the incident some years ago in a city near me ...

Some members of the police in that city, that police service being known for its stupidity and brutality, were involved an altercation with a fellow walking a large -- huge, that is -- dog on the main street at bar-exiting hour. The police, like them or hate them, had their hands full in that situation at the best of times, doing perfectly legitimate police stuff. They instructed him more than once to leash his dog, he refused, they attempted to load him into a paddy wagon, the dog became aggressive, they shot it. I happened to be a neighbour of the young man and his dog, and he was scum of the first water. But people shouldn't shoot dogs, really, unless it's absolutely necessary, and I would have expected, knowing that police service, that it wasn't absolutely necessary. So if forced to take sides on that story, I would really have had to shoot myself.

Take sides as between the Chinese government and the Falun Gongers, say? No, ta. I really don't care what they do to each other ... although my sympathies do tend to lie with the Chinese government. And China vs. Tibetan resistance, ditto; don't get me started on that Dalai Lama piece of crap.


It's the Canadian angle I don't get -- this guy just became a citizen immediately after the manadatory 5 year? It's was political asylum, no?

OK -- so this guy gets a newly minted Canadian passport and almost immediately runs back to Uzbekistan to 'visit' people? He's either nuts or a spook?

If he is a genuine little freedom fighter guy, then more power to him and my sympathies ...

There really are "freedom fighters" in this position -- they really do leave their own countries because they are in personal danger, not because they want to, just because it is the only option if they want to live, and they're no good to anyone dead. With a secure base to return to, they may feel somewhat safer engaging in their fight at home -- and they may feel morally obliged to. The survivor guilt of people who save their own skins and leave others to carry on really can be a heavy load.

Sometimes people really do just want to see family -- dying parents can have a strong pull, for instance. And after five years' absence, the local authorities sometimes really aren't particularly interested in them, and they'll be okay as long as they keep their heads down while they're there.

The problem is that the country of new nationality is only a safe base if they're not actually in the country of old nationality, and by returning to the old country they really do give up the protection of the new one, as against the govt of the old one, for as long as they're there.

Whether he's a real freedom fighter or an anti-China operative for someone else, who knows? -- and of course whether his fight was a genuine, democraticly inspired struggle is a whole nother question. I think I'd be kind of suspicious of the family-visit claim in his case, though.

[Symphony of Freedom]

8. China should be destroyed...

Any country that executes cannabis dealers in stadiums like China has deserves to be nuked to oblivion. Just take the pro-democracy left in Hong Kong to safety first...(i.e. members of the pro-democracy camp not controlled by Martin Lee's gang Washington and Vatican-backed peons.)

[tuvor]

11. China tries Canadian on terrorism charges

A Canadian being held in China has gone on trial on terrorism charges, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Thursday.

Huseyin Celil is accused of being involved in East Turkestan terrorist activities, according to the ministry. A spokesperson added they consider Celil a Chinese citizen and that no verdict had yet been reached in the case.

The confirmation came hours after advocates for Ceyil held a news conference in Toronto urging federal officials to intervene in on his behalf.

Gloria Nafzinger of Amnesty International Canada called on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to help with Celil's case. The human rights group says Celil will be executed if found guilty.

http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2006/08/10/ceyil-trial.html