Article Link
AFP
2009-07-28 12:14

BEIJING (AFP) - A Christian member of the Uighur ethnic group went on trial in western China's Xinjiang region Tuesday, a court official said, in a case that a rights group described as religious persecution.

Alimjan Yimit's trial opened in the remote oasis city of Kasghar, an official at the city's Intermediate People's Court told AFP.

The official, who declined to give her name, refused to reveal the charges or any other details.

US-based Christian rights group China Aid said that Yimit is being tried for "revealing state secrets," a vague charge that Chinese authorities often deploy for political ends.

Christan Aid said the charge had been levied against Yimit as part of efforts to curtail the spread of Christianity among ethnic Uighurs.

"The charges are seen as a cover for religious persecution and sources state that the reason for Mr Yimit's imprisonment is his Christian faith and witness among the Uighur people," the group said in a statement.

Yimit was taken into police custody in January 2008 and charged with "endangering national security," inciting separatism and illegally providing state secrets, the group said.

In a six-hour trial in May last year, the Kashgar court handed the case back to prosecutors due to "insufficient evidence," it said.

Xinjiang is largely populated by Uighurs, a traditionally Muslim central Asian ethnic group.

Anti-Chinese unrest in the Xinjiang capital of Urumqi that exploded on July 5 has left at least 197 mostly Han Chinese dead.

Yimit's arrest came after the government shut down several Christian-owned companies in the region in September 2007, including the British company Jirehouse for which he worked, China Aid said. (AFP)