A Whitechapel mosque has raised £54,000 to aid an investigation into the Chinese genocide of Uyghur Muslims by the International Criminal Court.

Imam Ajmal Masroor asked event attendees at East London Mosque to “put their money where their mouth was” to bring China to “justice” for what the UK has officially recognised as genocide. Various individuals and organisations pledged tens of thousands of pounds in just one night. 

Rodney Dixon KC, the lawyer leading ICC’s case against China, told Eastlondonlines that the funding is needed not just for the “investigation of the crimes” committed against Uyghur Muslims by China but also to secure valuable witnesses for the case:  “We need to be able to protect them and get them out of the situation.”

He said: “We recently brought a victim out who had been in a camp in China and got to Kyrgyzstan… And he is one of the witnesses we are relying on. But that takes a lot of effort, a lot of support and a lot of funding.”

Dixon said at the event: “We wanted to make sure it was hosted in East London Mosque to give it the widest possible support from the Muslim community.”

“These events are so important, to keep the flame burning and make sure people know.”

The East London Mosque is one of the largest mosques in Europe, with over 7,000 worshippers for prayers.

The case is complicated by the fact that the ICC has no jurisdiction in China. According to Dixon, the evidence suggests that Uygurs have been “rounded up” in Tajikistan, which is an ICC member, and “taken to China, into camps.”

He said: “China does not want dissidents in exile [in Tajikistan]… this shows the extent of their ambitions.”

Dixon plans to bring the case to the ICC against Tajikistan, so the ICC can investigate China through the crimes they are committing in an ICC member state.

Baroness Helena Kennedy KC, co-chair of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, also spoke at the event: “It is extremely important that China is somehow held accountable and doing that through the ICC is the only way.” 

She said: “China and Russia will block Security Council efforts… we’ve tried urging Islamic nations to help, without success, and I have been disappointed with the UN. No one wants to start a war of attrition with China.”

Dixon said: “In the UN, a lot of Muslim countries voted in favour of China because China gives them a lot of business.” He said it has therefore fallen on countries like the UK to take action.

Dixon said the Uyghur Muslims also have a long history of dissent against the Chinese Communist Party: “People are targeted because of their ethnicity and religion but also because China doesn’t want to have any dissent or any possibilities of separation.”

He added: “The evidence shows that this is a very sophisticated genocidal campaign – slow and calculated.”

A Uyghur Muslim who had arrived in London the week of the event stood up and asked for a microphone. She said: “What we need from you is more than just financial support. It is awareness.” 

She said: “I found myself to be alone by the rest of the world…Do not ignore us…I haven’t contacted my parents for six years. My children have never met their relatives.”