17:08, 09 September 2014 Tuesday

Detained Uighur scholar Dr. Ilham Tohti has appeared in a Chinese court for the first time since being arrested eight months ago charged with separatism.

The Central Nationalities University professor and human rights activist was detained on January 15 and has not been seen in public since.

He appeared in court on Sunday for the first hearing of his trial in Urumqi, the capital of the autonomous Xinjiang (East Turkestan) region, Turkish news portal Dunya Bulteni reported.

Dr. Tohti remained in the hearing, with shackles on his ankles, for a total of three hours and fifteen minutes, in which his charges were read out by five prosecutors.

In the hearing, Dr. Tohti rejected the charges against him as being ideological and political.