A Kazakh court has decided against deporting a Chinese woman of Kazakh descent back to China, where her lawyers say she faces a risk of torture after working at a secretive internment centre in China’s western region of Xinjiang.
Sayragul Sauytbay will be allowed to remain in Kazakhstan but will be given a suspended sentence of six months after having been found guilty of crossing the border illegally into Kazakhstan. She was granted asylum in Kazakhstan in June.
The court case drew widespread attention in Kazakhstan, where Ms Sauytbay’s testimony provided the first public insight into a widespread network of extra-legal internment centres that China has built to imprison at least half a million Chinese citizens in Xinjiang.