World Bulletin / News Desk

Beijing is asking Indonesia to extradite four Uighur it claims as Chinese nationals, in return for the repatriation of an Indonesian fugitive wanted by Jakarta on graft charges.

Talking to local press Thursday, Indonesia's Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Luhut Binsar Panjaitan said the trade had come up in the negotiation process for the deportation of fugitive Samadikun Hartono.

"Yes, there was [a request], but the request for Uighur will be discussed in another context because it is a different case," Panjaitan said as quoted by detik.com.

He added that Indonesia will allow China to question the men, who are serving prison sentences after being found guilty of collaborating with the country's most wanted militant, Santoso.

Hartono -- a former commissioner of PT Bank Modern -- fled the country in May 2003 after being sentenced to four years in prison for misappropriating 169.4 billion Indonesian Rupiah ($12.9 Million) in government bailout funds during the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

Attorney General Muhammad Prasetyo said Thursday that he appreciated China's move, but no deal had been made.

He underlined that any agreement would be governed by an MoU on asset tracing and corruption extradition signed on the sidelines of the Conference of the Prosecutors General of China and Attorneys General of ASEAN-China.

The four Uighur were sentenced last year to six years in prison on charges of "terrorism" and immigration violations.

The court ruled that they were from China's western East Turkestan region, and not Turkish nationals as the "fake passports" they were carrying stated.

Turkey has linguistic and ethnic ties with the Uighur homeland of East Turkestan.

The men were arrested in 2014 on their way to the forest of Poso, Central Sulawesi, to join Santoso's group.

Indonesia's National Counter Terrorism Agency has said Uighur have been traveling to Poso for "terrorism" training.

Uighur -- which constitute around 45 percent of the population of East Turkestan – have accused China of carrying out repressive policies that restrain their religious, commercial and cultural activities.