A Chinese court today sentenced the prominent Uighur academic Ilham Tohti to life imprisonment for promoting separatism, prompting international calls for his release.
It's the harshest sentence handed out to a dissident in China for many years. As Mr Tohti, an economics professor seen as a moderate, was taken from the dock he shouted out "It's not just! It's not just!" according to his lawyer Li Fangping.
Mr Tohti was arrested in the capital Beijing in January, along with seven Uighur students, and transferred more than 3,000km to the west in the Xinjiang provincial capital Urumqi to face charges of organising a separatist group, which included the students arrested.
Intensified violence
The region has seen intensified violence in the past year and a half, and hundreds have died in violence which the central government has blamed on Islamist militants and separatists, prompting a major crackdown by authorities.
During his detention, his supporters say, Mr Tohti was tortured, denied food for 10 days and shackled for more than 20 days.
He has long maintained that his goal was to build mutual trust between Uighurs and Han Chinese in Xinjiang, where Han Chinese now make up more than 40 per cent of the population, but where the Uighurs chafe against rule by Beijing. China has always said Xinjiang is part of its territory.
He was denied access to lawyers for the first five months of his detention, rights groups say, and police raided his home and seized computers and telephones.
He founded the website Uighur Online and is an outspoken critic of Beijing’s policies in Xinjiang. Mr Tohti was picked up by police after he criticised Beijing’s response to a suicide car attack near Tiananmen Square.
The European Union’s external action service condemned the sentence and called for Mr Tohti’s immediate release. “The EU condemns the life sentence for alleged ‘separatism’ handed out today to Uighur economics professor Ilham Tohti, which is completely unjustified,” a spokesperson said. “The EU deplores that the due process of law was not respected, in particular with regard to the right to a proper defence.”
The United States and United Nations also called for Mr Tohti’s release.
William Nee, China researcher at Amnesty International, said Mr Tohti was a prisoner of conscience who must be released immediately.
“Ilham Tohti worked to peacefully build bridges between ethnic communities and for that he has been punished through politically motivated charges,” he said.
