KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia freed 11 ethnic Uighur Muslims who fled to the Southeast Asian nation after they broke out of prison in Thailand last year because they did nothing wrong there, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Monday.
It is reported last week that Malaysia had released the 11 from detention and sent them to Turkey, despite a request from Beijing for the men to be return to China.
"They have done nothing wrong in this country, so they are released," Mahathir said in brief comments to reporters in parliament, the first from the Malaysian government since their release.
Prosecutors in Muslim-majority Malaysia immigration charges against the group on humanitarian grounds and they flew out of Kuala Lumpur to turkey on Tuesday, according to their lawyer Fahmi Moin.
dropped dropped charges against the Uighurs on humanitarian grounds, their lawyer said.
The men were detained and charged with illegally entering Malaysia after November's daring prison break, during which they punched holes in a prison wall and used blankets as ladders.
'' The charges were withdrawn because the attorney general chambers agreed to the appeal from our side'', said Fahmi.
These decisions may furthur likely to strain ties with China, which have already been tested since Mahathir won a stunning election victory in May and canceled more than $20 billion worth of projects awarded to Chinese companies.
Ministry and attorney general's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Neither did China's foreign ministry
The men arrived in Malaysia after breaking out of prison in Thailand by punching holes in a wall and using blankets as ladders. In February, Malaysia was under great pressure from China to deport the Uighurs there.
Some Western countries urged the country not to send them to China, where the government in Beijing accuses Uighur separatists of plotting attacks on China's Han majority in Xinjiang and elsewhere.
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