Kramer Levin Obtains Grant of Asylum for Uighur

Kramer Levin obtained a grant of asylum for a 28 year-old member of China's Uighur Muslim minority. Our client was forced to flee China after peacefully participating in a demonstration last year to protest widespread discrimination against Uighurs and the Chinese government's suppression of their civil and religious rights. Chinese authorities violently cracked down on the demonstration and apprehended Uighurs throughout the historically Uighur region of Xinjiang, in the far west of the country. The authorities subjected those who had participated in the demonstration, or were suspected of having done so, to harsh interrogation and indefinite detention. A number of participants in the demonstration were sentenced to death and executed. Kramer Levin successfully argued that as a result of our client's participation in the demonstration and subsequent interrogation by the Chinese authorities, it is unsafe for him to return to China. The matter was referred to Kramer Levin by a Uighur-American activist who had previously served as an interpreter for the firm's Uighur clients detained at the Guantánamo Bay military base. Litigation associate Nakeeb Siddique, Land Use associate Patrick Sullivan, and Business Immigration partner Mark D. Koestler participated in the case.