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Uygur restaurateur from Xinjiang, detained in Turkey for suspected terror links, wary of China’s reach
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 05 February, 2019, 1:14pm
Late at night on October 31 last year, Wang Yi and her husband Kerem Mamut had just returned to their home in Basaksehir, a middle-class Istanbul neighbourhood, after a visit to the doctor to treat one of their children who had a fever.
The couple who are from China’s Xinjiang province, but have lived in Turkey for a decade, then heard loud bangs at the door.
“The neighbours,” they said to themselves, until one of their daughters ran upstairs. It was the police.
Twenty members of a Turkish special police unit detained Mamut and took him to a nearby police station to question him.
Mamut, a Chinese Uygur who held a Turkey residence permit, was suspected of communicating by phone with two people who had links to a terrorist organisation.
For three months, he was held at two deportation centres in Turkey without charge. His family and lawyer speculate he might have been targeted as part of China’s efforts to pressure Turkey to repatriate some ethnic Uygur Muslims living abroad.
The 53-year-old Chinese passport holder, who owns restaurants in Turkey and China, was held for two months at the first deportation centre.
There he said, his interrogators regularly asked if he wanted to be sent back to China.
Late December, Mamut was transferred to another deportation centre in Izmir, a city on Turkey’s Aegean coast.
Then on January 25, Mamut was unexpectedly granted conditional release.
“These accusations of terrorism are so remote from who I am,” Mamut told South China Morning Post in Istanbul last week during an emotional gathering with his family.
That evening, Mamut hugged his 10-year-old son Babur, whom he did not see during his three-month detention.
“We initially thought it might be a misunderstanding and that they would investigate quickly,” said Mamut’s wife Wang about her husband’s detention.
“But as time went on, we started to think that things were not that simple.”
Wang, a Han Chinese mother of four who holds Turkish citizenship, took over running the couple’s Chinese-Uygur restaurant while Mamut was being held.
The restaurant called Kroren, in Istanbul’s conservative Fatih district, is well-known to both Uygur and Chinese people, including employees of China’s consulate in the city.
Mamut’s lawyer, Lokman Akcay, called the case a “massive mystery” and has yet to be shown concrete evidence that proves his client’s alleged links to a terrorist organisation.
https://www.scmp.com/news/world/eur...njiang-detained-turkey-suspected-terror-links
- Kerem Mamut was held for three months in Turkey deportation centres
- He was suspected of communicating with two people who had links to a terrorist organisation
- He believes Turkey may have been cooperating with Chinese authorities
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 05 February, 2019, 1:14pm
Late at night on October 31 last year, Wang Yi and her husband Kerem Mamut had just returned to their home in Basaksehir, a middle-class Istanbul neighbourhood, after a visit to the doctor to treat one of their children who had a fever.
The couple who are from China’s Xinjiang province, but have lived in Turkey for a decade, then heard loud bangs at the door.
“The neighbours,” they said to themselves, until one of their daughters ran upstairs. It was the police.
Twenty members of a Turkish special police unit detained Mamut and took him to a nearby police station to question him.
Mamut, a Chinese Uygur who held a Turkey residence permit, was suspected of communicating by phone with two people who had links to a terrorist organisation.
For three months, he was held at two deportation centres in Turkey without charge. His family and lawyer speculate he might have been targeted as part of China’s efforts to pressure Turkey to repatriate some ethnic Uygur Muslims living abroad.
The 53-year-old Chinese passport holder, who owns restaurants in Turkey and China, was held for two months at the first deportation centre.
There he said, his interrogators regularly asked if he wanted to be sent back to China.
Late December, Mamut was transferred to another deportation centre in Izmir, a city on Turkey’s Aegean coast.
Then on January 25, Mamut was unexpectedly granted conditional release.
“These accusations of terrorism are so remote from who I am,” Mamut told South China Morning Post in Istanbul last week during an emotional gathering with his family.
That evening, Mamut hugged his 10-year-old son Babur, whom he did not see during his three-month detention.
“We initially thought it might be a misunderstanding and that they would investigate quickly,” said Mamut’s wife Wang about her husband’s detention.
“But as time went on, we started to think that things were not that simple.”
Wang, a Han Chinese mother of four who holds Turkish citizenship, took over running the couple’s Chinese-Uygur restaurant while Mamut was being held.
The restaurant called Kroren, in Istanbul’s conservative Fatih district, is well-known to both Uygur and Chinese people, including employees of China’s consulate in the city.
Mamut’s lawyer, Lokman Akcay, called the case a “massive mystery” and has yet to be shown concrete evidence that proves his client’s alleged links to a terrorist organisation.
https://www.scmp.com/news/world/eur...njiang-detained-turkey-suspected-terror-links