(Xinjiang) ChinaAid learned that on behalf of the defendant, Mr. Alimujiang Yimiti, the prominent attorney Li Baiguang from the Beijing Gongxin Law Firm, has issued an urgent appeal addressed to the Xinjiang Provincial Government and Chinese Central Government on January 7, 2010.
In letters of appeal to the People’s Congress, People’s Supreme Court and People’s Procuratorate at both the national and Xinjiang-regional levels, Attorney Li stated that according to the laws, the charge of “unlawfully providing state secrets to overseas organizations”and the sentence of 15 years imprisonment on Alimujiang are illegal and should be withdrawn. He articulated this in four main proofs with some brief facts:
1. There is no proof based for the charge of “unlawfully providing state secrets to overseas organizations”.
a. Alimujiang is not able to “unlawfully provide state secrets to overseas organizations” because he has no access to any state secrets because he is only a common citizen working for an agriculture company.
b. The original charge on him was due to illegal religious activity, i. e. spreading Christianity among Uyghur people. This is not spreading state secrets.
2. The only so called proof, the appraisal (given by the State Secrecy Bureau that the ‘secret’ in question is deemed ‘top-secret’) is not legally authoritative and endorsed.
3. Alimujiang has no subjective motivation to leak any state secrets because he does not know what specific aspect from his talk with the American was labeled as sate secret. He pleaded the court for further indication, but the court refused.
4. The trials on the local court level violated the legal procedure.
a. According to the law, any trial should be held without exceeding 45 days after having accepted the case, but Alimujiang was detained for more than one year after the first trial without issuing a verdict.
b. The court did not declare the verdict openly to the lawyer, which violated the legal procedure.
c. The court has not given a copy of the verdict to Alimujiang’s wife after the verdict has been issued (on August 6 of 2009) for more than 4 months, which violates the legal procedure.
d. The court offered an illegal appraisal, yet refused following a legal procedure for an appraisal appealed by the attorney and the defendant.
e. The appellant suspects the appraisal is a fake one made by local officials who dislike his religious conversion.
The Attorney Li Baiguang is confident in this appeal because he believes that the central government may investigate the case for the sake of maintaining legal justice and social stability of Xinjiang.
Bob Fu, the president of ChinaAid, calls on the international community to raise awareness and join in the effort to release Alimujiang, an innocent man. He also advises the Chinese Central Government that through Alimujiang’s case, they can discover and clear out any corrupted local officials who violate the laws and cause potential conflicts between different religious groups in Xinjiang.
According to Xinjiang’s history, the local officials in any dynasties are so easy to be corrupted since they are confident that Xinjiang is a place too far for the central government to control well, or even to understand its conditions enough. (For example, after July, 1759, the Qing Dynasty of China took over the region from the hands of Western (or Dungar) Mongols). Therefore, the Central Government of China should learn from history, and take the necessary steps to prevent such future conflicts from arising.
