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China cuts Uighur's
sentence
 A Uighur millionaire jailed by China for allegedly
endangering national security has had her sentence
reduced, a US-based rights group said.
Rebiya Kadeer is now due to be released in August
2006, one year early, the Dui Hua Foundation said in a
statement.
The move comes a week after the US State Department
said China was "backsliding" on human rights, and
ahead of the Chinese parliament's congress.
Rights groups and the US say Kadeer was sentenced on
insufficient evidence.
The Uighur businesswoman, a prominent member of the
Uighur ethnic minority in China's north-west Xinjiang
province, was charged in 2000 with passing information
to foreigners, separatism and attempting to overthrow
the state, and sentenced to eight years in jail.
Transcripts of her trial centred on local newspaper
reports on the treatment of Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang
that Rebiya had sent to her husband in the US.
John Kamm, director of the Dui Hua Foundation, said
that Kadeer would now be released in August 2006, or
even earlier if she "continues to demonstrate 'genuine
repentance and willingness to reform'".
Rights groups believe that Kadeer's prosecution was
connected to her husband's political activism.
Sidik Rouzi, a former political prisoner who fled to
the US in 1996, has publicly condemned China for its
treatment of the Uighurs, who make up more than half
the mainly Muslim population of Xinjiang.
Kadeer was also politically active. At the time of her
arrest, she was on her way to meet a visiting
delegation from the United States Congressional
Research Service to complain about political prisoners
in the province.
Before her arrest, Kadeer ran the 1,000 Families
Mothers' Project, which helped Uighur women start
businesses.
She was also a member of the Chinese Government's top
advisory group and attended a UN women's conference in
Beijing in 1995.
US officials have repeatedly raised the matter of
Kadeer's arrest with the Chinese authorities.
The Chinese authorities have blamed Uighur separatists
for a series of bombings and riots, which have led to
hundreds of executions and arbitrary detentions over
the years.
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