{"id":177493,"date":"2014-09-23T01:31:12","date_gmt":"2014-09-23T08:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=177493"},"modified":"2015-12-15T14:58:14","modified_gmt":"2015-12-15T22:58:14","slug":"uyghur-scholar-ilham-tohti-receives-life-sentence-separatism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/09\/uyghur-scholar-ilham-tohti-receives-life-sentence-separatism\/","title":{"rendered":"Ilham Tohti Receives Life Sentence for Separatism"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Urumqi court passed an unexpectedly heavy sentence of life imprisonment for separatism on Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti<\/strong><\/a> on Tuesday, The New York Times’ Edward Wong reports:<\/p>\n

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The punishment was among the harshest that Chinese officials have imposed on a political dissident in recent years. Officials announced Ilham Tohti\u2019s sentence after holding a two-day trial in Urumqi, the regional capital, that ended last Wednesday. Mr. Tohti was taken by the police last January from his home in Beijing, where he teaches economics at Minzu University, and was brought to Xinjiang to be held here and charged with separatism, to which he pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n

Officials in Xinjiang are grappling with a surge in violence between the mostly Muslim, Turkic-speaking Uighurs and the Han, the dominant ethnic group in China. Communist Party leaders have long said that Xinjiang is in a battle with the forces of terrorism, separatism and religious extremism and that all steps must be taken to stamp out the insurgency. But foreign scholars, diplomats and human rights advocates denounce China\u2019s hard-line policies against the Uighurs, and they say the harsh measures that China has taken against moderates like Mr. Tohti will only lead to further radicalization of Uighurs and a rise in violence, including the kind encouraged by foreign jihadist groups.<\/p>\n

[\u2026] Prosecutors presented eight main arguments in trying to prove Mr. Tohti guilty, Mr. Li said. One was that Mr. Tohti had \u201cinternationalized\u201d the Uighur issue by giving interviews to foreign reporters and had translated foreign articles and essays about Xinjiang to be posted on Uighur Online. [Source<\/a><\/strong>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Xinhua offers more details of Ilham Tohti’s alleged crimes, including the accusation that he “bewitched and coerced young ethnic students to work for the website<\/a> and built a criminal syndicate.” Seven of his students have also been detained and are likely to face trial.<\/p>\n

Ilham Tohti has long opposed Xinjiang independence. In a 2011 essay, he wrote of his determination to promote harmony between Han and Uyghurs<\/a> in order to avoid “ethnic conflict and killing, political unrest [\u2026] turmoil and division” in China. A spokesman for the pro-independence World Uyghur Congress told The Financial Times after the sentencing that “China has issued a clear signal that Uighurs hoping for change through legal and other rational channels will be thoroughly disappointed. Equality and dignity can only be grasped by casting off the Chinese regime<\/a>.” In an interview with Ian Johnson for The New York Review of Books (via CDT) this summer, scholar Wang Lixiong predicted that clearing out the ideological middle ground might be precisely the authorities’ goal<\/a>: “The only conclusion is dark: it\u2019s that they don\u2019t want moderate Uighurs. Because if you have moderate Uighurs, then why aren\u2019t you talking to them? So they wanted to get rid of him and then you can say to the West that there are no moderates and we\u2019re fighting terrorists.”<\/p>\n

Wang and others reacted to the verdict on Twitter:<\/p>\n

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Wang Lixiong says China has created a Uighur Mandela RT @wlixiong<\/a>: 2014\u5e749\u670823\u65e5\uff0c\u5f53\u5c40\u5236\u9020\u4e86\u4e00\u4f4d\u7ef4\u543e\u5c14\u7684\u66fc\u5fb7\u62c9<\/p>\n

— Gady Epstein (@gadyepstein) September 23, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n