AKIPRESS.COM - Kazakhstan has refused to grant asylum to a Chinese woman who fled her country and spoke publicly about working in Chinese internment camps in the far west that are holding an estimated 1 million minority Muslims, her lawyer said on Friday.
Abzal Quspan told The Associated Press that Kazakh officials have rejected the asylum request by Sayragul Sauytbay, an ethnic Kazakh Chinese national who fled China in April.
“We were expecting this (decision),” he said. “We all understand what kind of influence China wields on the authorities here.”
He said the ruling is not final and that he would be appealing.
Sauytbay had been put on trial for illegally crossing into Kazakhstan and given a six-month suspended sentence, which was greeted by her supporters and rights activists as indicating that she would not be deported back to China.