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10-07-07, 08:35
Source: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/07/10/asia/AS-GEN-China-Canada-Detainee.php
The Associated Press
Published: July 10, 2007
BEIJING: A high court in far west China on Tuesday rejected an appeal from Huseyin Celil, who was sentenced to life for terrorism in April in a case that has strained Beijing's relations with Canada.
The official Xinhua News Agency said the High People's Court in China's far western Xinjiang region had upheld the life sentence handed down by a lower court because the "facts were clear, evidence was reliable and adequate."
Celil was convicted of the crimes of "separating China" and "organizing, leading and participating in terrorist groups, organizations."
Celil's status has been a point of contention between Canada and China, which does not recognize Celil's Canadian citizenship and says his case is not subject to consular agreements.
The Canadian government has been upset because Celil appeared in court without a Canadian diplomat present — a violation of his rights as a Canadian citizen.
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"We are examining the court's decision and will comment at the appropriate time," a Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Rodney Moore, said by telephone from Ottawa.
The phones of the Xinjiang High Court run unanswered Tuesday.
Celil's family has said he was being persecuted because he is a Muslim and a political dissident who fled his homeland in the 1990s.
A member of the Uighur minority group in Xinjiang, Celil, 37, was born and raised in China. He became wanted in the country after campaigning for the rights of the Uighur people in the early 1990s. He was arrested in 1994 and allegedly tortured, but escaped from prison in 2000 and fled to Uzbekistan and Turkey before reaching Canada, where he was given citizenship.
But during a March 2006 visit to his wife's relatives in Uzbekistan, Celil was arrested and extradited to China.
Chinese authorities have said that militants among the Uighurs — Turkic-speaking Muslims — are leading a violent Islamic separatist movement in the region and are seeking to set up an independent state of "East Turkistan."
The movement gained momentum following the dissolution of the former Soviet Union and the establishment of several independent and largely Muslim nations in the neighboring region.
The Associated Press
Published: July 10, 2007
BEIJING: A high court in far west China on Tuesday rejected an appeal from Huseyin Celil, who was sentenced to life for terrorism in April in a case that has strained Beijing's relations with Canada.
The official Xinhua News Agency said the High People's Court in China's far western Xinjiang region had upheld the life sentence handed down by a lower court because the "facts were clear, evidence was reliable and adequate."
Celil was convicted of the crimes of "separating China" and "organizing, leading and participating in terrorist groups, organizations."
Celil's status has been a point of contention between Canada and China, which does not recognize Celil's Canadian citizenship and says his case is not subject to consular agreements.
The Canadian government has been upset because Celil appeared in court without a Canadian diplomat present — a violation of his rights as a Canadian citizen.
Today in Asia - Pacific
Pakistan military storm mosque after negotiations fail
17 killed, 30 wounded in a suicide blast in Afghanistan
China executes former drug safety chief
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"We are examining the court's decision and will comment at the appropriate time," a Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Rodney Moore, said by telephone from Ottawa.
The phones of the Xinjiang High Court run unanswered Tuesday.
Celil's family has said he was being persecuted because he is a Muslim and a political dissident who fled his homeland in the 1990s.
A member of the Uighur minority group in Xinjiang, Celil, 37, was born and raised in China. He became wanted in the country after campaigning for the rights of the Uighur people in the early 1990s. He was arrested in 1994 and allegedly tortured, but escaped from prison in 2000 and fled to Uzbekistan and Turkey before reaching Canada, where he was given citizenship.
But during a March 2006 visit to his wife's relatives in Uzbekistan, Celil was arrested and extradited to China.
Chinese authorities have said that militants among the Uighurs — Turkic-speaking Muslims — are leading a violent Islamic separatist movement in the region and are seeking to set up an independent state of "East Turkistan."
The movement gained momentum following the dissolution of the former Soviet Union and the establishment of several independent and largely Muslim nations in the neighboring region.