[RFA] Authorities in northwestern China's Xinjiang region have given a seven-year prison term to an ethnic Uighur for watching a politically sensitive film on Muslim migration.Eli Yasin, a resident of Chaghraq township in Akesu prefecture's Wensu county, was sentenced in February after being held since May 2015, sources said, adding that officials had suspected Yasin and family members who viewed the film with him of planning to go abroad "to wage jihad."
However, Hesen Eysa, security chief for Yasin's Karasu village said that family circumstances argued against their having had such a plan. He said, "All of them were over 40 years of age. They had a farm, and they were struggling to survive and provide for their children’s education."
"They showed no signs of opposing the government. At least I never saw any signs of this. As a security chief, I am having a hard time explaining these charges to the people in my village. None of this makes any sense. It is very unjust," he added.
Detained with Yasin were two sisters and the sisters' husbands, all residents of nearby Toxula township and each with three to five children in their own families.
Police officials in Wensu county hung up the phone on learning that a reporter had called them for comment on the matter.