Contact: Rachel Sparkman, Media Coordinator, 888-889-7757, Rachel@ChinaAid.org; Mark Shan, Spokesperson, 267-205-5210, Mark@ChinaAid.org; both with China Aid; www.ChinaAid.org; www.MonitorChina.org

URUMQI, China, Jan. 26, 2010 /Christian Newswire/ -- In a most welcome development in the campaign to right the injustice against imprisoned Uyghur Christian Alimujiang Yimiti (aka Alimjan Yimit, or Alim), the People's High Court of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in Urumqi, China accepted his appeal to have the case reviewed in November of 2010.

This same court last March upheld on appeal the fifteen-year sentence for allegedly leaking state secrets imposed upon the former fruit orchard farmer by the Kashgar District Intermediate Court in October 2009. This sentence was announced three months after the close of a second closed-door trial which was held to replace the first one held over a year earlier on May 27, 2008.  It was during this first trial that the case thrown back to the Kashgar police due to a lack of evidence. As they waited for the politically-sensitive season surrounding China's staging of the 2008 Summer Olympics to pass and attempted to patch-up their case against Alimujiang, the additional spurious initial charges against him of inciting ethnic separatism and illegally propagating his Christian faith were abandoned, while all this time he languished in a pre-trial jail completely cut off from all contact with his family.

On December 17, 2010, lawyer Li Dunyong of Gongxin Law Firm of Beijing went to Urumqi in Xinjiang and met with Gulinuer (Gülnur), Alimujiang's wife, to discuss their proposed trip to the prison to visit Alimujiang.

The files on Alimujiang's case are in the Uyghur language, which Li Dunyong doesn't understand.  Therefore, Alimujiang's family found a Uyghur lawyer to help Li.  They reviewed the case together and made preparations for Alimujiang's appeal.

On the second day, Li Dunyong, the Uyghur lawyer and Alimujiang's family went together to Xinjiang Higher People's Court and talked with Judge Kadeer, who is in charge of Alimujiang's case.  However, the judge advised his family not to spend more money on the lawyer, claiming that their collegiate bench had studied the case and had already made their decision, which will come out next week.

A longer press release is available at
www.chinaaid.org/2011/01/xinjiang-uyghur-christian-alims-case.html