RABAT: A Moroccan court overturned on Thursday a decision to deport a member of China’s Uyghur Muslim minority wanted by Beijing, ordering his release from prison, according to his lawyer.
Yidiresi Aishan has been detained in the North African kingdom since 2021, when he arrived in Casablanca from Turkiye with an Interpol arrest warrant against him though it was later rescinded.
That same year, Morocco agreed to extradite him to China, where he has been wanted by the authorities for alleged acts of terror.
A Rabat court “ruled in favor of his release, annulling the deportation order to China,” his lawyer, Miloud Kandil, told AFP.
He said his client, a father of three in his thirties, had left Morocco, without providing further details.
China accuses Aishan of “terrorist acts committed in 2017” belonging to a terrorist organization, allegations he denies.
In 2021, United Nations human rights experts urged Morocco to halt Aishan’s extradition, citing “the credible risk of grave violations of his human rights.”
Returning him to China could have exposed him to “arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance or torture,” the experts had said.
Beijing stands accused of detaining more than a million Uyghurs and other Muslims in its northwestern region, in a campaign that the United Nations has said may constitute “crimes against humanity.”
China vehemently denies the allegations, saying the policies have rooted out extremism in Xinjiang and brought about economic development.
Authorities have detained Uyghurs with overseas connections and confiscated their travel documents since a crackdown in the mid-2010s, according to researchers, campaigners and members of the Uyghur diaspora.