Indonesia says China wants Uighurs caught joining extremist group extradited

JAKARTA, Indonesia – Beijing has asked Jakarta to send 4 Uighurs jailed in Indonesia back to China in exchange for extraditing a graft fugitive, a minister said Thursday, April 21.

The Indonesian fugitive Samadikun Hartono, who went on the run after a 2003 conviction for embezzlement, was expected to arrive in Jakarta late Thursday after being caught last week in Shanghai.

In exchange for sending him back, Beijing is seeking the extradition of members of China’s mostly Muslim Uighur minority jailed for trying to join an Indonesian extremist group, said Indonesian Security Minister Luhut Panjaitan.

But he said that Jakarta has yet to agree to the request, adding that officials first wanted Hartono to arrive back in Indonesia.

“We will discuss the Uighurs separately, because the legal case is different,” Panjaitan said.

The 4 Uighurs were sentenced to 6 years each in 2015 for attempting to join the Islamic State-linked Eastern Indonesia Mujahideen, on the central island of Sulawesi.

The Uighur minority come from the northwest Chinese region of Xinjiang, where the group say they face cultural and religious repression.

Many are believed to have fled the restive region in recent years, sometimes traveling through Southeast Asia in the hope of resettling in Turkey.

Several Uighurs have succeeded in joining the extremist group on Sulawesi. Two were killed in a shootout with police last month, as authorities sought to capture the group’s leader.

Hartono was sentenced to 4 years in prison in 2003 after being found guilty of causing losses to the state by embezzling funds that were supposed to be used as a bailout for his family’s bank.

He fled while an appeal was pending, and was caught in a joint operation between Chinese and Indonesian authorities.

Indonesia is stepping up efforts to track down financial criminals overseas, with authorities saying they are hunting for 33 other fugitives. – Rappler.com