From disappearance to a secret trial: Kazakh writer Janez Hershman was jailed for five months, and his family finally waited on August 14 for a ten-year conviction.

After December 28, 2025, the life of Jane Austen began to be cut off by police calls over and over again. The family later recalled that sometimes he was taken away for a day, sometimes for days, sometimes for up to about a week, and then could go home. Until March 19, this repeated call suddenly became completely disconnected.

He is not a member of an underground political organization. He is a Xinjiang Kazakh writer who has long been engaged in children’s literature, humor and ironic writing, and has served as head of the Harmi Regional Writers’ Association and a member of the Chinese Writers’ Association. Family data show that he has published 13 works, many of which have been translated into Chinese. A minority ethnic intellectual who has entered the official literary system, after being taken away in March, his family has not received a formal notice of detention, nor knows his legal identity and exact place of detention.

In May, the son of Nartai, who lives in Kazakhstan, openly sought his father. In June, the family appealed to the Kazakh government, the Chinese Embassy in Astana and other agencies for help. The sister then went to Xinjiang to look for Heeshman, and the local public security authorities did not provide her with official information about her detention and the prosecutor's office did not give the family's expectations.

On July 14, Amnesty International issued an emergency action document stating that Hershman had been secretly detained for four months. According to his son, authorities had previously only verbally accused Hershman of "promoting extremist ideas" or holding "extremist ideas", but family members did not receive official charges.

On August 14, the case finally saw substantial changes.

Radio Free Europe that his family had learned that he would face a closed-door trial on charges of “destroying national unity.” The report said he could face up to a ten-year prison sentence. A person who failed to confirm his legal identity five months ago finally reappeared in the judicial proceedings; however, the procedure itself was closed.

China’s new law on national unity came into force on July 1, emphasizing common national identity and national unity, and further institutionalizing relevant regulations.The United States and the European Union have previously expressed concern about the broad provisions of the law involving the rights of individuals and ethnic minorities abroad.

The Hershman case resulted in an unusually clear trajectory: first long-term calls, then disappearances, family searches in vain, then verbal statements of “extreme ideas”; after the new national unity law came into force, the family now learns of “disrupting national unity” accusations and closed trials.

For ethnic minority intellectuals in Xinjiang, the danger this time axis reveals is not just that a writer may be imprisoned.The deeper question is that when “national unity” goes from political demands to a punitive legal system, literature, historical memory, language expression and national identity are completely in the hands of the state where they cross the criminal boundaries.

Hershman’s family searched for five months and finally learned the case went to court.

They still do not have an open court.