Ten Turkish Nationals to Be Tried for Allegedly Helping Citizens Cross Borders
By Emre Peker And Chun Han Wong
The Wall Street Journal - Jan. 15, 2015
Chinese authorities are preparing to put 10 Turkish nationals on
trial on allegations they aided illegal travel, Turkey’s Foreign
Ministry said Thursday, as a security clampdown on unrest in western
China buffets the two countries’ otherwise strengthening ties.
The
Turkish Foreign Ministry said Chinese prosecutors have accused two of
the suspects with “organizing people to illegally cross borders,” and
the other eight people with “selling travel documents.” Though the
ministry didn’t say whom the Turkish nationals were accused of
assisting, China’s state-run Global Times newspaper, which first
reported the arrests this week, identified them as Uighurs, a Turkic
group from western China.
China’s foreign and police ministries
declined to comment on the arrests, which the Turkish government said
took place in November.
News of the arrests of the Turkish
nationals comes amid persisting troubles in Xinjiang, a Chinese
territory abutting Central Asia that the mainly Muslim Uighurs regard as
their homeland.
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