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Uyghur academic completes one year in detention

Professor Tohti is held on charges of separatism; he was sentenced to life imprisonment on September 23, 2014 after a two-day trial.

Uyghur academic, Professor Ilham Tohti has been in detention since January 15, 2014. He was given life sentence in September 2014, and his appeals for relief have been turned down. Seven of his students were given prison sentences of up to eight years in December 2014. Perhat Halmurat, Shohret Nijat, Mutellip Imin, Abduqeyyum Ablimit, Atikem Rozi, Akbar Imin and Luo Yuwei (an ethnic Yi) worked as volunteers on Professor Tohti’s website, Uighurbiz. 

Tohti, who worked as a professor at Beijing’s Minzu University (formerly Central Nationalities University), often questioned the efficacy of Chinese government policies targeting Uyghurs citing worsening economic, social and cultural conditions. He founded the Uighurbiz website in order to “promote understanding as well as dialogue among ethnic communities,” as he explained in an autobiographical essay in 2011. The website, shutdown since Ilham Tohti’s detention, offered information on Uyghur social issues in Mandarin Chinese and had been hosted overseas after unrest in Urumchi in 2009.

Appealing to the Chinese authorities to “immediately and unconditionally” release the Professor, the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) said the detention, trial and sentencing of Tohti is “a travesty of justice and an explicit denial of his fundamental human right to free speech”.

The life sentence and the denial of his appeal indicates the lengths to which the Chinese government will go to “silence Uyghur opposition to discriminatory and assimilationist policies,” the UHRP said in a statement, accusing the Chinese authorities of creating an atmosphere of tension and fear in the Uyghur belt.   

“The repression of Uyghur voices during a time of government-led economic transformation in East Turkestan effectively means Uyghurs in China are unable to influence change and remain vulnerable to state policies that disregard their economic, social and cultural interests”, the statement added saying the UHRP also believes that state repression of free speech in the region “not only targets outspoken Uyghurs such as Ilham Tohti, but also millions of ordinary Uyghurs”.

In his statement from Washington, DC, UHRP Director, Alim Seytoff said: “The day of Ilham Tohti’s detention was the day the Chinese government made a political decision to end his reasonable questioning of government policies. The ensuing harsh treatment of a respected Uyghur academic sent a chilling message to all Uyghurs of China’s zero tolerance to legitimate dissent.

UHRP also demanded the release Perhat Halmurat, Shohret Nijat, Mutellip Imin, Abduqeyyum Ablimit, Atikem Rozi, Akbar Imin and Luo Yuwei, all Tohti’s students, presently behind the bars for working on the professor’s website, Uighurbiz.

 “Ilham Tohti’s case and on-going repression of Uyghur freedom of speech should mobilize all responsible members of the international community to call on China to meet international human rights obligations and release Professor Tohti. China’s increasing contempt for universal human rights standards are laid bare through the injustices Ilham Tohti and his family have been made to suffer,” Seytoff added.  
After his January 15, 2014 detention in Beijing, Chinese state media and Chinese officials heavily prejudiced Ilham Tohti’s case.

Only three days after his detention, an op-ed in the Global Times accused Tohti of links to the “West,” delivering “aggressive lectures and being the “brains” behind alleged Uyghur terrorists.
On March 6, 2014, former Xinjiang chairman, Nur Bekri stated that the evidence against Ilham Tohti was “irrefutable.”

The conditions of Ilham Tohti’s pre-trial detention did not meet international standards, as reports emerged that he had been denied food and medical assistance.  Furthermore, procedural issues ahead of his trial denied Ilham Tohti a fair hearing. His lawyers’ requests to see prosecution evidence ahead of the trial were rejected. In a briefing dated November 17, 2014, the Congressional Executive Commission on China (CECC) outlined further procedural violations, as described by Ilham Tohti’s lawyers. 

Professor Tohti was found guilty on charges of separatism and sentenced to life imprisonment on September 23, 2014 after a two-day trial that began on September 17.

European Union, US State Department and White House released statements condemning the sentencing. President Obama personally urged China to release Professor Tohti.

A November 21, 2014 appeal hearing was held behind closed doors at the Urumchi Number 1 Detention Center in violation of normal procedure, according to Professor Tohti’s lawyers. The appeal was turned down.

Since his conviction, Chinese authorities have seized his family’s assets and maintained heavy surveillance of the family home in Beijing. 
-By Ram Singh Kalchuri 
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