Advertisement

China sentences Uighur scholar Tohti to life imprisonment

The harshness of the sentence surprised observers.

By Ed Adamczyk

URUMQI, China, Sept. 23 (UPI) -- A court in Urumqi, China, sentenced Uighur activist and scholar Ilham Tohti to life imprisonment Tuesday for advocating separatism.

The surprisingly harsh sentence following the conviction of the moderate economics professor was quickly condemned by critics as a mockery of China's legal system and a brutal repression of dissent.

Advertisement

During the two-day trial, Tohti characterized himself as an opponent of separatism and an advocate of better relations between the Muslim Uighurs of western China and China's Han majority.

The ruling depicted Tohti as promoting Uighur independence "disguised as high-level autonomy" for the western Xinjiang province. He was also convicted of supporting terrorism, expanding the issue by speaking with foreign reporters, and attacking an assortment of government policies, his lawyer, Li Fangpaing, said.

Uighurs in Xinjiang claim they are targets of discrimination and repression by the Chinese Communist Party. Several have been convicted for terrorist-style attacks in the province and in Beijing. Tohti is considered a moderate in the issue; although critical of the government's policies regarding the Uighurs, he said his website was deliberately managed to prevent the dissemination of separatist ideas.

Advertisement

"This is so thorough and transparent a miscarriage of justice as to take one's breath away. By no stretch of the imagination, even the authoritarian imagination, could this be considered a fair trial. The severity of the sentence stands in inverse proportion to the substance of the charges," commented Elliot Sperling, an Indian University expert on Tibet and a friend of Tohti's.

Sperling added Tohti was a scapegoat, convicted to hide the failures of Chinese president Xi Jinping in Xinjiang.

"This has to be seen as a singular moment for human rights in Xi Jinping's tenure. This is going to be part of his legacy," said Sophie Richardson, China director of the advocacy group Human Rights Watch.

"To have shut away for life a man who had devoted himself to promoting peaceful interaction within the state really seems to extinguish hope that China, a Security Council member and the world's second largest economy, will tolerate even the most constructive advice about how to deal with one of its serious and rapidly deteriorating problems," she said.

Latest Headlines