18 Facts About Sayragul Sauytbay

Sayragul Sauytbay is a Kazakh doctor, headteacher and whistleblower from China.

Sayragul Sauytbay became one of the first victims of these camps in the world to speak publicly about the Chinese repressive campaign against Muslims, igniting a movement against these abuses.

Sayragul Sauytbay married Uali Islam, with whom she has two children.

Sayragul Sauytbay herself was subject to torture during her stay in the camps.

Sayragul Sauytbay's family was able to leave during the summer of 2016; they received Kazakh citizenship within a year.

Sayragul Sauytbay was accused by the authorities of spying for Kazakhstan.

In March 2018, to avoid being sent back to the camps, where she feared she would die, Sayragul Sauytbay decided to flee to Kazakhstan, where her family had already found refuge shortly before.

Sayragul Sauytbay crossed the Chinese-Kazakh border on 5 April 2018 using false documents.

Sayragul Sauytbay said that revealing that information made her subject to the death penalty in China as it was considered to be state secrets.

Sayragul Sauytbay's lawyer argued that if she were extradited to China, she would face the death penalty for exposing internment camps in Kazakh court.

On 1 August 2018, Sayragul Sauytbay was released with a six-month suspended sentence and direction to regularly check in with police.

Sayragul Sauytbay applied for asylum in Kazakhstan to avoid being deported to China.

Sayragul Sauytbay was chosen as an International Woman of Courage on 4 March 2020 by the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo.

An English translation of the book, in which Sayragul Sauytbay describes her experiences in a Xinjiang province internment camp, was published by Scribe in May 2021 under the title, The Chief Witness: Escape from China's Modern-day Concentration Camps.

In 2020, Sayragul Sauytbay said that she was being constantly harassed by the "long arm of China", receiving "death threats from Chinese callers".

In early 2021, Sayragul Sauytbay won the Nuremberg International Human Rights Award.

In 2021, Sayragul Sauytbay participated among other survivors, as a witness in the public hearings of the Uyghur Tribunal in London, and contributed answers to hearing questions, and a statement.

Chinese authorities denied the claims by Sayragul Sauytbay, stating that she had fled abroad after being suspected of fraud, that she had never worked in or been detained in any "vocational education and training center", and that "her words about seeing people tortured cannot be true".