China Court Upholds 15 Year Imprisonment For Pastor Yimiti

BEIJING, CHINA (Worthy News)– An ethnic minority house church leader remained detained in China’s troubled northwestern Xinjiang region Sunday, March 6, after a court rejected an appeal to review his 15 years prison sentence on charges of revealing state secrets to overseas groups.

The Higher Peoples Court of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region said there was “no basis” to review the long prison sentence given to 38-year-old Uyghur Pastor Alimujiang Yimiti, who converted from Islam to Christianity.

A notice was sent to Yimiti in mid-February, informing him of the result of the appeal, Christians said.

An earlier appeal in March 2010 had also failed.

United Nations officials and local Christians have linked the sentence to Yimiti’s Christian conversion, his leadership of a house church with his wife Gulinuer and two sons, and apparent involvement in sharing reports of religious persecution.