{"id":1198,"date":"2014-09-23T23:54:19","date_gmt":"2014-09-23T23:54:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.iuhrdf.org\/en\/2014\/09\/23\/life-jail-unusually-harsh-sentence-uygur-scholar-ilham-tohti-inciting-separatism\/"},"modified":"2014-09-23T23:54:19","modified_gmt":"2014-09-23T23:54:19","slug":"life-jail-unusually-harsh-sentence-uygur-scholar-ilham-tohti-inciting-separatism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/life-jail-unusually-harsh-sentence-uygur-scholar-ilham-tohti-inciting-separatism\/","title":{"rendered":"Life in jail: unusually harsh sentence for Uygur scholar Ilham Tohti for inciting separatism"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Laura Zhou
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 23 September, 2014, 1:32pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 23 September, 2014, 5:31pm<\/p>\n

An outspoken ethnic Uygur economics professor has been sentenced to life in prison on charges that he sought to split China.<\/p>\n

Ilham Tohti, a Beijing-based economics professor from Minzu University, was handed the jail term by the Intermediate People\u2019s Court of Urumuqi in Xinjiang this morning. The court also ordered that all his property be confiscated.<\/p>\n

Tohti, 44, was accused of promoting independence on a Uygur- and Chinese-language website he managed, Uighurbiz.net,, where he called for adjustment of China\u2019s policy in the region.<\/p>\n

He strongly denied the charges of separatism during the two-day trial that started last Wednesday, saying in a closing statement that \u201che loved his country … and that it was always his opinion that it was in the best interests of Uygurs to remain in China\u201d, according to his lawyer Li Fangping,<\/p>\n

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Ilham Tohti (centre) sits in a chair at the stand during his trial on separatism charges. Photo: Reuters<\/em><\/p>\n

The court  said Tohti had spread lessons containing separatist thoughts through his website and organised students to write, edit, translate and reprint articles seeking Xinjiang\u2019s separation from China, Xinhua reported.<\/p>\n

He also had \u201cinternationalised\u201d Xinjiang issues  by conducting
interviews with foreign media and attacking China\u2019s policies in Xinjiang, the court said.<\/p>\n

Before the verdict was announced, Tohti greeted everyone in the court this morning with Mandarin and Uygur language, Li.said <\/p>\n

Tohti remained quiet  and smiled when the 66-page verdict was read out, but in the end he yelled out “I won\u2019t accept” and was soon taken out of the court by police, Li said.<\/p>\n

Li said that Tohti\u2019s wife cried out at the court after the sentence was announced. \u201cIt\u2019s a disaster for his wife and two sons,\u201d he said.  Li said he would meet Tohti tomorrow to prepare for the appeal.<\/p>\n

The trial of Tohti has drawn concerns over judicial and human man rights abuses.  <\/p>\n

“Tohti has consistently, courageously and unambiguously advocated peacefully for greater understanding and dialogue between various communities, and with the state,” said Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch . \u201cIf this is Beijing\u2019s definition of \u2018separatist\u2019’ activities, it\u2019s hard to see tensions in Xinjiang and between the communities decreasing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The verdict was announced amid a spike of anti-government violence in the far western region of Xinjiang, home to ethnic minority Uygur Muslims..<\/p>\n

In the latest violence, at least two people were killed and multiple injured in a series of explosions in at least three locations in Luntai County on Sunday afternoon, government-owned news portal Tianshan web said in a brief report Monday morning .<\/p>\n

\"\"“><\/p>\n

Guzaili Nuer, wife of Ilham Tohti, makes her way back to the Urumqi Intermediate People’s Court. Photo: AFP<\/em>
Chinese authorities have blamed separatist forces from Xinjiang for these attacks against government.<\/p>\n

Human rights groups and Uygur activists say the government\u2019s high-handed policies fuel discrimination against local Uygurs by the Han, the dominant group of China.<\/p>\n

Mainland authorities have launched a massive crackdown against terrorism in wake of a string of violent attacks in the restive Xinjiang region and other cities on the mainland.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Laura ZhouPUBLISHED : Tuesday, 23 September, 2014, 1:32pmUPDATED : Tuesday, 23 September, 2014, 5:31pm An outspoken ethnic Uygur economics professor has been sentenced to life in prison on charges that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-1198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1198"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=1198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}