Morocco court postpones Uyghur extradition hearing

A Moroccan court on Thursday postponed an extradition hearing for a member of China's Muslim Uyghur minority wanted by Beijing for "terrorist acts", charges he denies, his lawyer said.

The hearing was postponed until September 1.

Yidiresi Aishan, 34, was arrested at China's request on July 19 on arrival at Casablanca airport from Turkey.

China accuses him of "terrorist acts committed in 2017" and of belonging to a "terrorist organisation", his lawyer Miloud Kandil told AFP.

Aishan, a computer scientist based in Turkey since 2012, denies China's allegations and says he has not been back in China since that year, Kandil said.

Rights group Amnesty International said last month Aishan risks being detained and tortured if forcibly returned to China.

Aishan was the subject of an Interpol red notice issued at Beijing's request, his lawyer said.

"The prosecution explained that the accused was arrested under a judicial agreement signed by Morocco and China in 2016," he added.

Rights groups say at least one million Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim minorities have been incarcerated in camps in Xinjiang, where authorities are also accused of forcibly sterilising women and imposing forced labour.

China has strongly denied the allegations, saying training programmes, work schemes and better education have helped stamp out extremism and raise incomes in the northwestern region.