AFP
Tue Jul 18, 2:40 PM ET
 
OTTAWA (AFP) - Ottawa is seeking access to a Canadian activist who China has reportedly sentenced to death for founding a political party to represent a minority ethnic group in Xinjiang province, an official said.
 
Huseyincan Celil, 37, was sentenced to death in absentia in China for his human rights work on behalf of the Uighur people, according to reports.

He was extradited from Uzbekistan to China last month where he has since vanished in Chinese custody, said Canadian officials who could not confirm the death sentence.

"We have formally requested information on Mr. Celil's exact whereabouts in order to have immediate consular access," Foreign Affairs Ministry spokeswoman Pamela Greenwell told AFP.

"A diplomatic note was sent to China," she added, but refused to discuss Beijing's response except to say that communications between the two governments regarding Celil were "ongoing".

"We're making every effort to obtain immediate consular access in China and we'll continue efforts to confirm his well-being and to ensure that he is afforded due process and his rights are protected," she said.

Last month, a foreign affairs official told AFP that Ottawa had sought confirmation from China that Celil was actually being detained there.

The Globe and Mail newspaper reported on Tuesday that the Canadian embassy in Beijing failed to obtain any details of his whereabouts or his fate.

Celil fled China a decade ago, arrived in Canada in 2001 as a refugee and became a Canadian citizen.

He was arrested in Tashkent on March 27 while trying to renew a visitor's visa in the Uzbek capital.

His wife and three of his six children live in Burlington, Ontario. A friend told a local newspaper Cecil was in Uzbekistan to try to get his three other children out of China.