Erbolat’s mother lost contact with her son Erbolat in December 2016 after she moved to Kazakhstan where she now lives. In 2018, through some family connections she had in Xinjiang, she discovered that her son had been arrested in March 2017, spent a year in several internment camps, and sentenced to 17 years imprisonment after a trial that the family in Xinjiang was unable to attend due to the very short notice they were given by the police. She was also told that Erbolat is now held in a prison in Shiho (Wusu) city, and that the Chinese authorities offered Erbolat’s wife the chance to reduce her husband’s sentence if she paid some money to the police.
Erbolat’s mother does not know the official reasons for the arrest, but she believes Erbolat was arrested solely because of his religious practices.
According to Erbolat’s mother, Erbolat’s wife and daughters, still in Xinjiang, are allowed to talk to Erbolat, but the videocalls are dialled from a police station and monitored.
Erbolat’s mother, who is now a citizen of Kazakhstan, has been unable to gather any official information on her son’s situation, despite her appeals to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan.