A Thai lawyer is seeking the release of 42 Uyghurs who have spent more than a decade in detention and who rights groups fear could be deported to China where they would be at risk of torture. The men from the mostly Muslim minority from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China have been held on immigration charges at a Thai detention center since attempting to escape Beijing’s persecution through Thailand.
Lawyer Chuchart Kanpai said in a petition submitted to a court on Thursday that the men had spent enough time locked up and should be freed. “They have been jailed from 2013 to 2025, more than 10 years. It is obvious that they have completed the sentence,” Chuchart said in the petition, according to a copy obtained by Radio Free Asia. “Detention is therefore unlawful.”Read more
