Xinjiang Uyghur singer and White Paper Movement participant Yashar Shohret, sentenced to three years, has completed his sentence

(Rights Defense Network Information Center report) On August 10, 2026, this website learned that Yashar Shohret, a Xinjiang Uyghur singer and White Paper Movement participant who was sentenced to three years in prison, has completed his sentence.

Yashar Shohret: Born on July 25, 1998, he is from Bole, Bortala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region; he is Uyghur, his English name is Yashar Shohret, and he is a rapper and songwriter, with the stage name “Uigga.” He is a White Paper Movement participant and a political prisoner detained in China.

Although Yashar Shohret is originally from Bole, Xinjiang, after graduating from secondary school he was admitted to Xinjiang University of Finance and Economics, where he studied computer science and technology. He later went to Chengdu, Sichuan, for further study and career development;

During the 2022 White Paper Movement, on November 27, he participated in a public mourning by many people on Wangping Street in Chengdu for the victims of the fire in Ürümqi, Xinjiang, and sang a dirge in the Uyghur language. He was consequently suppressed at the scene by plainclothes police assigned by the authorities; he and several others were later violently seized by plainclothes police and criminally detained on suspicion of “the crime of gathering a crowd to disrupt social order.” At first, the Chengdu police mistakenly believed that he was a foreigner and suspected that an overseas force was causing disorder inside China, but after he was held for 21 days, he was ultimately released on bail from the Chengdu Pretrial Detention Center; however, from then on he was subjected to extensive surveillance, and his identification documents were also confiscated during his time at university;

On August 9, 2023, the day after the Chengdu Universiade (that is, the 31st Summer World University Games in Chengdu) ended, Yashar Shohret was suddenly arrested by police from Bole, Xinjiang, who crossed provincial boundaries to seize him from his rented residence on unspecified charges, and he was quickly taken back to Bole, Bortala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, where he was criminally detained and held at the Bole Detention Center;

On November 13, 2023, the police transferred his case to the Bole Procuratorate for prosecution. It was only then, after his defense lawyer obtained accurate information about the case and met with him, that the lawyer learned that he had previously publicly released several songs in Uyghur (such as “wake up”) and had published his original songs (Uigga), accompanied by Chinese translations, on NetEase Cloud Music. The police selected some words and phrases that they considered problematic and consequently accused him of the two suspected offenses of “promoting extremism” and “illegally possessing items that promote extremism”;

On June 20, 2024, Yashar Shohret’s case was heard at the Bole Court in Xinjiang, and at first instance he was sentenced to three years in prison for “the crime of promoting extremism” and “the crime of illegally possessing items that promote extremism.” His sentence runs until August 8, 2026. Before this, Yashar Shohret was serving his sentence at Wusu Prison in Xinjiang (Wusu City, Tacheng Prefecture, Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang; postal code: 833006).