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Xinjiang
ChinaDiplomacy

Uygur man awaits Morocco ruling as China seeks extradition after Interpol snub

  • Case of Yidiresi Aishan has drawn ‘deep concern’ from UN human rights experts over his potential treatment if he is sent back to China
  • Interpol cancelled an alert China requested for Aishan, who lives in Turkey and has published Uygur newspapers and collected accounts of abuses in Xinjiang

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Yidiresi Aishan’s wife and the couple’s three children visited the Moroccan embassy in Turkey in August to petition for his release. Photo: Buzainuer Wubuli
Linda Lew
Before leaving for Morocco in July, Yidiresi Aishan, a Uygur man from China, was little known outside the Uygur diaspora community in Turkey, where he has lived since 2012.
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That changed when Aishan, also known as Idris Hasan, was detained on arrival in Casablanca on the basis of an Interpol alert requested by the Chinese government, which accused him of terrorism offences.
Aishan maintains that he has committed no crimes, in China or Turkey, according to his wife, Buzainuer Wubuli. Interpol in August cancelled the alert after the international police body conducted a review, amid accusations that the system was being used to repatriate dissidents to China. But Beijing also made an extradition request to Morocco, with which it has an extradition treaty.

12:39

What happened to our parents? Uygur sisters seek answers

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NGOs and politicians from more than a dozen countries, as well as United Nations human rights experts, sprang into action to prevent Aishan being extradited back to China, where they feared he could face torture, arbitrary detention and an unfair trial. The 33-year-old computer engineer and activist has published Uygur newspapers and collected testimonies from victims of alleged persecution in China’s far-western Xinjiang region.

A letter from four of the UN Human Rights Council’s independent experts to the Moroccan government said: “We express our deep concern about the potential extradition of Mr Aishan to China, where he risks being subjected to torture and other ill-treatment, both for him being part of an ethnic and religious minority as well as the allegations of being affiliated with a terrorist organisation.”

The letter also asked Morocco to take note of its obligations under treaties such as the Convention Against Torture, which it ratified in 1993. The convention says that states should not deport or extradite a person towards another where they risk being subject to torture.

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As of Thursday, the Moroccan authorities had not responded to the letter, which was sent on August 11 and made public on Monday, two months later.

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