Six More Uyghurs
Freed
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Another cohort of
Uyghur detainees is freed from
The men were
identified as Adel Nury, 40; Ahmed Tursun, 38; Abdulghappar Abdulrahman, 36;
Anwar Hasan, 35; Edhem Mohammed, 31; and Dawud Abdulrehim,
35.
They landed in the
early hours of Sunday after a 17-hour direct military flight, along with three
A new Uyghur translator was flown in from
No comment was
immediately available from the administration of U.S. President Barack
Obama.
They were among a larger group of 22 ethnic Uyghurs captured in
They say they were living as refugees in
Seven men
left
The transfer of these six men leaves seven in
The
The
After a series of military tribunals and courtroom battles, they were
cleared of links to global terrorism—but most governments refused to take them
in for fear of angering
The U.S. Supreme
Court this month agreed to review the cases of all remaining Uyghur prisoners at
The group was
originally ordered released into the States in October last year by U.S.
District Judge Ricardo Urbina here.
But his decision was overturned after
an appeals court ruled that District Court judges don’t have the authority to
order the transfer of foreigners into the
Uyghurs in
Millions of
Uyghurs—a distinct, Turkic minority who are predominantly Muslim—populate
Central Asia and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) of northwestern
Ethnic tensions
between Uyghurs and majority Han Chinese settlers have simmered for years, and
they erupted in rioting in July that left some 200 people dead, according to the
government’s tally.
The six men may have
difficulty reaching their relatives in the XUAR because Chinese authorities have
imposed a telephone and Internet blackout over the whole region in an apparent
bid to avoid further ethnic violence.
Twelve people have
since been sentenced to death in connection with the violence, which was the
worst the country has experienced in decades.
Uyghurs say they have long
suffered ethnic discrimination, oppressive religious controls, and continued
poverty and joblessness despite
Chinese authorities blame Uyghur
separatists for a series of deadly attacks in recent years and accuse one group
in particular of maintaining links to the al-Qaeda terrorist network.
Original reporting
by Radio Free
Radio Free Asia
is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news,
information, and commentary in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not
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