Nationality

A court in Xinjiang sentenced Huseyin Celil, a China-born Uygur, to life in prison for "taking part in terrorist activities and plotting to split the country". Celil was born and raised in China and fled to Uzbekistan and Turkey in 2000 after escaping from the Chinese prison. He arrived in Canada in 2001 and received Canadian citizenship in 2005. He was arrested in Uzbekistan and extradited to China in June 2006. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman rejected Canada's complaint that Canada could not afford consular assistance to Celil during the trial and maintained that the Celil trial is China's "internal matter". China does not recognise Celil's Canadian citizenship and emphasises that Celil committed the alleged crimes before he left China. Later, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said Celil is a Chinese national under China's Nationality Law and China does not recognise dual nationality.