Wife begs China to release husband facing execution, Former activist accused of terrorism, Canadian consulate has had no success

Toronto Star
Jul. 21, 2006. 01:00 AM
JESSICA LEEDER
STAFF REPORTER

The pregnant wife of a Burlington man detained in China and facing a death sentence says allegations her husband is a terrorist are "lies" and the Canadian government should not stop trying for his release.

"My husband is not a terrorist. It's all lies. He just spoke against China," Kamila Telendibaeva told reporters at a rally outside the Chinese Consulate in Toronto yesterday. Clutching a Canadian flag in her right hand with a sign begging for her husband's freedom stretched across her belly, the eight months pregnant Telendibaeva said her three children are begging to know when their father, named Huseyincan Celil, will come home.

She's at a loss for what to tell them.

Since March, Celil has been cut off from his family. He was arrested by government officials while trying to renew a visitor's visa during travels to Uzbekistan, where his wife's family lives.

Attempts by Canadian consular officials to have him released were unsuccessful.

At the time, Celil's family said they thought he was arrested because of Uzbekistan's close ties to China, where Celil, who was born in China, spent his younger years working as a political activist in Xinjiang province.

In the mid-1990's, Celil was imprisoned for his activism, and his connections to the Uyghurs, a minority group of Turkish-speaking Muslims who have been accused by China of leading a violent separatist movement. He escaped, and was eventually given refugee status in Canada. Meanwhile, the Chinese government sentenced him to death in absentia.

As soon as he was arrested in Uzbekistan, his family feared he would end up in the hands of the Chinese government. In spite of much lobbying on the part of Canadian officials, Uzbek authorities quietly deported him to China last month.

The Chinese have yet to reveal where they're holding Celil, who became a Canadian citizen last year. He has had no access to consular officials, lawyers or his family.

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay told Reuters yesterday his office has had trouble dealing with China on the issue.

"When you mention his name — we've approached the ambassador, we've approached the foreign minister — what they say is `Oh, do you mean that terrorist, that Uyghur terrorist?'" said MacKay. "(The Chinese) are not very forthcoming with information about Mr. Celil," he said.

Although Celil has been accused of having multiple aliases, using one of them to assassinate a political leader, and committing terror-related crimes in Kyrgyzstan and China, he has not been formally charged.

"He only has one name," his wife Telendibaeva said yesterday, dismissing the allegations.

Alex Neve, the secretary general of Amnesty International in Canada, said he hoped Prime Minister Stephen Harper would find a moment at last week's G-8 Summit in Saint Petersburg, Russia, to personally lobby Chinese President Hu Jintao for Celil's release. Neve said he suspects Celil is being tortured and regardless of the allegations against him, he should be afforded his rights.

"On a simplistic level, it doesn't matter who the person is ... a criminal or a saint, no one should ever be tortured," he said. "If the Chinese are not prepared to bring legitimate charges against him, it kind of says to the rest of us this is not about legitimate criminal prosecution, this is about persecution."

Mohamed Tohti, president of the Uyghur Canadian Association, said he fears Celil's case will be overshadowed by the situation in Lebanon, and he'll be left to languish in prison.

"Canadians in Lebanon, sooner or later, they will come home," he said. "The life of another Canadian is at stake. This is an emergency. There is great urgency for his family," he said.

In Burlington, Celil's wife has been quietly preparing for the arrival of the couple's fourth child.

But she said she hesitates to think of the birth — or of potential names for the child — in her husband's absence.

Telendibaeva said her Hamilton-based lawyer, Chris MacLeod, has applied for a visitor's visa to China. He plans to try to find Celil himself.