Halit has been held in prison since November-December 2019, likely with a 7- or 10-year sentence. At the end of 2019, many reliable sources confirmed Hali’s arrest. Halit’s great cousin, who was interviewed by Amnesty International and now lives in the USA, was also told by the same sources that Halit had been arrested once before and sent to an internment camp for almost 18 months, from October 2017 to early 2019.
Halit’s great cousin has now lost connection with Halit’s family in Xinjiang so has been unable to gather any further information on Halit’s situation. He believes that Halit is being detained because he travelled abroad and because Halit’s father Abdushukur Abliz, a former religious government official, is also detained.