Release International

Communist officials in Xinjiang province will decide the fate of Uyghur Christian Alimjan Yimit, detained for the past 14 months despite a judge dismissing his case.

A high-level government committee in Xinjiang is now reviewing Alimjan's case – ten months after a trial judge ruled last May there was 'insufficient evidence' to convict him of 'endangering national security'. The judge ordered his case be sent back to Public Security Bureau (PSB) prosecutors.

This news coincides with a report from China Aid which suggests that the case of another Uyghur Christian, Pastor Lou Yuanqi, is becoming a mirror image of Alimjan's. Pastor Lou, who was arrested in May 2008, was tried in December on charges of 'using superstition to undermine the law'. It has now emerged that, at his trial too, the judge ruled there was 'insufficient evidence' against him – and his case was sent back to the PSB.

Pastor Lou, who suffers from hepatitis B, remains at the Huocheng County Detention Centre. His wife, children and congregation continue to meet, believing that the best response to Pastor Lou's imprisonment is to share the Gospel with more people.

Ethnic minority Uyghur Christians have suffered intense persecution from officials in Xinjiang province in north-west China over the past year. Most Uyghurs are Muslim.

Meanwhile, the wife and two children of Beijing lawyer Gao Zhisheng have managed to escape the PSB's tight surveillance and flee to the US, with the help of China Aid among others. Gao, a Christian, was seized by Chinese security forces in February (7x7, February 24, 2009) and has not been seen since.

His family are very worried about him: he was tortured when he was detained in 2007 and has spoken publicly about this abuse, despite death threats warning him to keep quiet.

(Sources: China Aid, Release International, The Voice of the Martyrs Canada)

• Pray for the release of all three men. Ask God to comfort their families.
• Write to the Chinese authorities expressing polite concern for the plight of Uyghur Christians Alimjan Yimit and Lou Yuanqi – and for lawyer Gao Zhisheng. Write to: Ms Wu Aiying, Ministry of Justice of the People's Republic of China, 10 Nan Da Jie, Chaoyangmen, Beijing, 100020, China. Or email: minister@legalinfo.gov.cn Please do not mention Release International in your letters or emails.
 

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