Uighur migrants held in Thailand for 11 months take case to court
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BANGKOK (Reuters) - A Thai court will decide this month whether to release 17 Uighurs from the western Chinese region of Xinjiang, including 13 children, who have been detained for the past 11 months in Bangkok, a lawyer for the group said on Tuesday.
Hundreds of people have been killed in unrest in Xinjiang in the past two years, prompting a crackdown by Chinese authorities. Small numbers of Uighurs, a Muslim people from Xinjiang who speak a Turkic language, have been trickling out of China to Southeast Asia with some ending up in Thailand.
"The court will hold an urgent hearing on March 24 and decide whether to release the group of 17, including a four-month-old baby, who are all from the same family," Worasit Piriyawiboon, a lawyer for the group, said.
"They would be released immediately if the court finds they have been detained illegally."
