{"id":4240,"date":"2018-10-22T19:01:03","date_gmt":"2018-10-22T19:01:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.iuhrdf.org\/en\/2018\/10\/22\/china-jails-uyghur-prisoner-conscience-life-separatism-charges\/"},"modified":"2018-10-22T19:01:03","modified_gmt":"2018-10-22T19:01:03","slug":"china-jails-uyghur-prisoner-conscience-life-separatism-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/china-jails-uyghur-prisoner-conscience-life-separatism-charges\/","title":{"rendered":"China jails Uyghur ‘prisoner of conscience’ for life on separatism charges"},"content":{"rendered":"

A noted Uyghur scholar and critic of Beijing\u2019s policies in the restive Xinjiang region <\/span>was<\/span> jailed for life on charges of separatism on Tuesday, triggering immediate protests from rights groups across the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

A court in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), handed out the sentence after a quick two-day trial, jailing Ilham Tohti for life, depriving him of all political rights and confiscating his property, state media reported.<\/span><\/p>\n

Charges against Tohti, who was teaching at Beijing\u2019s Minzu University till he was detained in January, include spreading \u201cseparatist thoughts via the website (he set up) Uyghur Online.<\/span><\/p>\n

He bewitched and coerced young ethnic students to work for the website and built a criminal syndicate,\u201d the ruling said, according to the official news agency, Xinhua. The court further ruled that Tohti <\/span>organised<\/span> this group to \u201cwrite, edit, translate and reprint articles seeking Xinjiang’s separation from China.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe articles attack China’s ethnic, religious, economic and family planning policies, and incited ethnic hatred by distorting the causes of a number of riots and disputes that occurred in Xinjiang and Beijing,\u201d the ruling said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Quoting the ruling, Xinhua said, Tohti encouraged violence against the state. \u201cHe also colluded with foreign groups and individuals in hyping incidents related to Xinjiang with the aim of making domestic issues international.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Rights watchdog, Amnesty International, called the ruling, an \u201caffront\u201d to justice.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis shameful <\/span>judgement<\/span> has no basis in reality. Ilham Tohti worked to peacefully build bridges between ethnic communities and for <\/span>that<\/span> he has been punished through politically motivated charges,\u201d William Nee, China Researcher at Amnesty International\u2019s Hong Kong office, said, adding: \u201cTohti is a prisoner of conscience and the Chinese authorities must immediately and unconditionally release him.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThese criminal charges make a mockery of President Xi\u2019s calls for a greater understanding and solidarity between the Uyghur and Han communities. Instead of targeting peaceful activists like Tohti the Chinese authorities must end the systemic discrimination and suppression Uyghurs face,\u201d Nee added.<\/span><\/p>\n

The group Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) said in a statement that Tohti\u2019s detention was rife with abuses.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIlham Tohti\u2019s nine-month detention and his trial, held on September 17-18, have been rife with abuses of his human rights and due process rights, in violation of the Chinese law and international standards,\u201d the statement said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhile detained on trumped-up charges, Ilham Tohti has been subjected to inhumane and degrading treatment and was denied legal counsel for six months,\u201d the CHRD said.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

A noted Uyghur scholar and critic of Beijing\u2019s policies in the restive Xinjiang region was jailed for life on charges of separatism on Tuesday, triggering immediate protests from rights groups…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-4240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4240","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\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4240\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4240"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=4240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}