中國婦權The Death of a Uyghur Girl: Sent to a Xinjiang Detention Camp at 14, She Died 12 Years Later
RFA Confirms Rahile Omer, Imprisoned at 14, Dies in Prison at 23
Posted by Tahir Imin Form Uyghur Times
Republished and Editor by Yue Zhang
Chinese officials confirmed her death to Radio Free Asia. She was serving a 12-year prison sentence imposed in October 2021.
Updated November 8, 2026, at 8:00 a.m.
Rahile Omer, a Uyghur woman from Konasheher, Kashgar, was 14 when authorities imprisoned her in 2017. She died at 23 in a prison in Peyzivat county, local officials told Radio Free Asia.
Key details
News of Omer’s death first emerged on October 25, 2026, when the Chinese-language X account @LUOXIANGF reported that she had died, citing online reports published the previous day. The post also alleged that she died from severe depression and that both of her parents had died in prison. Those claims have not been independently verified.
The account cited information attributed to researchers and described how Chinese police classified and monitored Omer following her family’s detention. Her parents were reportedly detained on July 3, 2017. Police surveillance records allegedly designated her a “Class 12” person, a category associated with individuals connected to existing police investigations and considered potential security leads.
A photograph dated March 20, 2018, reportedly shows Omer at a vocational training facility in Konasheher (Shufu) County. The account said available police records contained no evidence that she had committed a crime.
RFA’s Uyghur Service subsequently contacted police stations and judicial offices in the region to investigate her fate.
A Han Chinese officer at the Langgar Township Police Station confirmed that Omer had died approximately one month earlier but declined to disclose where she died. Another woman who answered a separate call estimated that her death occurred about two months earlier.
A justice official in Toqquzaq provided further details about her detention history. According to the official, Omer was held at the Konasheher Opal training center from 2017 to 2019, then transferred to the Toqquzaq detention center, where she remained until 2021.
In October 2021, authorities sentenced her to 12 years in prison and transferred her to a prison in Peyzivat County.
A separate police officer attributed her death to heart disease but provided no medical records or further explanation about the circumstances surrounding her death.
What the Records Show
Leaked Konasheher police records published in 2022 provide additional documentary evidence of Omer’s detention.
Dr. Adrian Zenz, a researcher specializing in Chinese government policies in Xinjiang and the analysis of leaked Chinese government documents, examined the Xinjiang Police Files. His research identified Omer in the leaked records, including a photograph taken in 2018 at the Village 4 police station in Toqquzaq Bazaar.
Zenz’s findings indicate that Omer was detained in September 2017, following the detention of her father, who was a government cadre. The case was also documented in international reporting on the leaked Xinjiang Police Files, including USA Today’s investigation.
The Shahit.biz database separately identifies Omer as a resident of Sulaq Village in Langgar Township.
Official Explanations and Unanswered Questions
According to RFA, local officials said Omer had been detained on suspicion of “illegally gathering to disturb social order,” a vague accusation frequently used against Uyghurs.
The justice official described her as having been “not reformed” after two years of so-called training. The official also referred to her religious practices, including praying in her dormitory, but provided no further explanation of the evidence used against her or the legal proceedings that resulted in her 12-year sentence.
As is typical in such cases, Chinese authorities have made no public announcement regarding her death.
Reaction
Uyghur groups and advocates had not yet responded to the news at the time of publication.
Access Note
Uyghur Times could not independently verify these accounts or review the original files. The X post’s claims about her parents, cause of death, detention date, “Class 12” label and file photo trace to the account and unnamed researchers, not to a named source or document.
Follow the Story: Further Reading
• Xinjiang Police Files: Inside a Chinese Internment Camp — BBC, May 24, 2022.
• “Absolutely No Mercy”: Leaked Files Expose How China Organized Mass Detentions of Muslims — The New York Times, November 16, 2019.
• Xinjiang’s Repression of Uyghurs Has Evolved, Not Ended— Foreign Policy, April 16, 2026.
• He Helped China Repress Uyghurs. He Says He’s a Victim, Too. — The New York Times, July 28, 2026.