Tycoon doing fine in prison: mayor

A Xinjiang businesswoman sentenced to eight years in jail in March for passing state secrets out of the country is in good health, despite reports to the contrary, the Mayor of Urumqi said.

But Mayor Nur Bakry said Rebiya Kadeer, a former member of the advisory body Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, had committed serious crimes and her punishment was justified.

'She is doing fine in prison,' Mr Nur said. 'She was tried and punished according to law. In prison, she will be treated according to law. But she definitely tried to harm state security. Anyone who harms the interests of the state should be punished.'

Hong Kong's Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said last month that authorities at Urumqi's Liudaowan prison had not allowed family members to visit Kadeer or bring medicine for her heart disease.

Family members were quoted as saying they feared her condition would deteriorate. Kadeer, 54, was named by Forbes magazine in 1994 as one of the top 10 tycoons on the mainland.

Like Mr Nur, she is an ethnic Uygur, a Muslim and Turkic-speaking minority. Han Chinese, while the overwhelming majority on the mainland, account for only 42 per cent of Xinjiang's 17 million people. Uygurs and other minorities have resorted to violence in a quest to set up a separate state.

Kadeer was detained in August last year while on her way to meet a US congressional staff delegation to give them information on political prisoners in Xinjiang. One of her sons and a secretary were also detained and administratively sentenced to two and three years, respectively, of re-education through labour.

Kadeer was accused of sending news reports on separatist activities to her husband, Sidik Rouzi, a former political prisoner and prominent Beijing critic who now lives in the US. Human rights organisations have said Kadeer was sentenced for sending information that was already published in official newspapers.

However, the Urumqi Mayor said her activities went beyond that. 'If it were just carrying a few newspapers, that would not stand up in court,' he said.

Xinjiang has been rocked by sporadic separatist violence in recent years. In the mid-1940s, local forces took advantage of a weak Nationalist government and proclaimed an independent state of East Turkestan but communist armies later crushed them.

Mr Nur said only a small minority of people were involved in separatist activities and they did not represent the majority in Xinjiang.