Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) Rebiya Kadeer, 58, an ethnic Uighur (Xinjiang Muslim group) was freed today and allowed to leave China. Prior to her arrest in 1999, she was involved in legal defence work for on behalf of her ethnic group and women.
She was found guilty in 2000 of "illegally sending state documents" and sentenced to eight years in jail to be purged in a Xinjiang prison.
According the San Francisco-based Dui Hua Foundation, which has been involved in the case from the beginning, Ms Kadeer was allowed to leave China and should be on her way to the United States.
In her recent trip to China US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had raised the Kadeer case with her Chinese counterparts.