A group of 20 tourists from the UK, South Africa and India have been released following their arrest in China for terror-related offences.
The group was detained in northern China’s Inner Mongolia region on 10 July and accused of watching banned terrorist videos. The tourists say they were watching a documentary about Genghis Khan.
Following their release, a spokesperson for two members of the group revealed the circumstances surrounding their arrest.
“This tour included visits to temples, gardens, mountains and national parks and was to culminate in a visit to the Terracotta Warriors and Horses in Xian and the Great Wall in Beijing,” said the spokesperson, on behalf of 74-year-old Hoosain Jacobs and his wife, 68-year-old Tahira Jacobs.
“Chinese officials arrested the group of 20 tourists on day 30 of the 47-day tour, a day after they visited the Genghis Khan Mausoleum at Ordos, Inner Mongolia. The arrest took place at the airport in Ordos on Friday July 10, 2015, just before they were to board a plane to… Xi’an.
“No one in the group has been charged and it is believed the reason they were arrested was because of an unfortunate misunderstanding. They watched a documentary on Genghis Khan to further their understanding of the region they were in at the time, and this may have mistakenly been deemed as ‘propaganda’ material. The group visited the Genghis Khan Mausoleum in Ordos on the day before their arrest.”
The spokesperson added the private tour group was only there to “learn and experience new cultures” and that they have “absolutely no criminal records whatsoever”.
“It can only be assumed that junior officials who made the initial arrest in Inner Mongolia made a mistake, due to perhaps their unfamiliarity of the English language,” the spokesperson added.
Genghis Khan’s Mongol Empire overran China in the 13th and 14th centuries; although this not considered a sensitive subject in modern-day China. The country is on a state of alert at present however, for Islamic terrorists from the Xinjiang region. Last week three “knife-wielding” men, believed to be from Xinjiang, were killed by police in Shenyang, northeast China.
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