Chinese Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti was sentenced by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to life in prison for separatism.
The Xinhua News Agency published an article on Sept 24, entitled “Court Record of Ilham Tohti’s Separatism Case”. The article lists “five major crimes” of Tohti.
It said, prosecution organs verify that Urumqi’s judiciary has the authority in handling Tohti’s case, and claimed that the investigation, prosecution and trial had followed legal procedures. According to Xinhua, 32 groups of over 210 pieces of evidence were exhibited in the court trial, including testimonies, video footage of Tohti’s class, examination reports of electronic evidence and statements of the accused.
On Sept. 25, Tohti’s lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan said on twitter that Xinhua had even issued video footage of evidence from the trial, including videotapes of Tohti’s class. Liu said he had protested to the deputy chief judge that Xinhua’s report had seriously violated law as the sentence has yet to take effect and Tohti still intends to appeal.
Sui Muqing, Guangdong rights lawyer: ”Although Xinhua is the CCP’s official news agency, it is still improper for it to report those details. When a sentence has not taken effect, doing that is equivalent to voicing support for the sentence. Normally this is not allowed in a state ruled by the law.”
On twitter, Liu Xiaoyuan also said Xinhua’s report is clearly selective, as it focused on reporting evidence against Tohti, but never mentioned how the judge interrupted Tohti’s statements several times, or the fact that some witnesses did not appear in court. Liu said, “Three cameras had recorded the whole process of the trial”, “Would the court please broadcast all videos to the public?”
Li Fangping, another of Tohti’s lawyers, also said in WeChat that Xinhua’s so-called “court record” had manipulated many facts, especially those about espousing violence.
Li Fangping:”I think the report is a one-sided story and cannot comprehensively reflect the trial process. If necessary, they can make all written or video records open to the public. At least this is better than what they did right now.”
Sources said Tohti had entrusted Li Fangping to appeal with a signed 15-page petition for documentation. Li also revealed Tohti’s words after being sentenced to life in prison. Tohti said “I am voicing for my ethnic group, and for China’s future. I felt I should take more responsibility when I learned the sentence.”
According to Tohti, he had worried that he might betray his conscience, career, friends and family after being put into a severe environment, but he had survived that.
Tohti still shows his optimism, saying “I am still looking forward to sunshine and a bright future, I believe that China will be better and Uygur rights will be respected.”
Sui Fuqing:”To my knowledge, Tohti is very moderate among Xinjiang people. He never stands for separatism. Li Fangping said he had demanded evidence during the trial showing Tohti had advocated separatism. The prosecutor replied that Tohti pretended to oppose separatism but he indeed supported it. This is not law. Law judges human behavior according to their acts. But this sentence is made simply based on conjectures. They are purely making excuses just to convict Tohti.”
Jerome Cohen, a famous professor of law at New York University, commented on the issue on Sept. 24. Cohen said, when he heard that Tohti was sentenced by the CCP to life in prison on separatism charges, what came to his mind was that the CCP had done something “very disgraceful and horrifying”.
US Senator Sherrod Brown has paid long-term attention to the CCP’s human rights issues. Brown told VOA that Tohti was not a separatist and what he did was to boost human rights. The CCP’s sentence on Tohti has negative impacts on its relation with US.
Ms. Rebiya, President of the World Uyghur Congress, was interviewed by VOA on Sept. 25. Rebiya said, if the CCP continues its torture and killing of innocent Uyghur people, they may be forced to seek autonomy like what Scottish people had done.
Leave a Comment