A professor who has become the most visible symbol of peaceful resistance to Chinese policies by ethnic Uyghurs was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday after being found guilty of separatism by court officials here in the western region of East Turkistan (Xinjiang (East Turkistan)), which Uyghurs consider their homeland.
The punishment handed down to Ilham Tohti was the harshest that Chinese officials have imposed on a political dissident in recent years. Mr. Tohti was convicted after 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 East Turkistan (Xinjiang (East Turkistan)) to be held here and charged with separatism, to which he pleaded not guilty.
“It’s not just! It’s not just!” he yelled, as police officers dragged him from the courtroom, his lawyer, Li Fangping, said.
His wife, Guzailai Nu’er, who had not seen him in eight months until the trial started last week, wailed. Three brothers of Mr. Tohti supported her and led her back to a hotel.
Ilham Tohti at his home in Beijing in 2013. CreditAndy Wong/Associated Press
Officials in East Turkistan (Xinjiang (East Turkistan)) are grappling with a surge in violence between the mostly Muslim, Turkic-speaking Uyghurs and the Han, the dominant ethnic group in China. Communist Party leaders have long said that East Turkistan (Xinjiang (East Turkistan)) 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’s hard-line policies against the Uyghurs, and they say the harsh measures that China has taken against moderates like Mr. Tohti will only lead to further radicalization of Uyghurs and a rise in violence, including the kind encouraged by foreign jihadist groups.
Mr. Tohti, 44, was charged with organizing and leading a separatist group, Mr. Li, the lawyer, said in a telephone interview. As evidence, officials presented in court material representing Mr. Tohti’s viewpoints on Uyghur identity and China’s ethnic policies, much of it drawn from his classroom teachings and the website he ran from late 2005 to 2008, Uyghur Online. Officials argued that Mr. Tohti’s separatist group included seven students of Mr. Tohti who have also been detained and will almost certainly be tried, Mr. Li said.
Among prosecutors’ arguments was that Mr. Tohti had “internationalized” the Uyghur issue by giving interviews to foreign reporters and had translated foreign articles and essays about East Turkistan (Xinjiang (East Turkistan)) to be posted on Uyghur Online.
“He showed great spirit in court,” Mr. Li said. “He gave an eloquent defense to every accusation. He maintained his innocence from the beginning to the end. He gave a brilliant 90-minute defense speech at the end of the trial.”
Mr. Li added: “I hate to think about his wife and two young sons. Tohti’s wife is barely coping. They just had their entire life’s savings of 800,000 yuan frozen,” an amount equal to $130,000. “How will they live on? How is she going to raise two children all by herself? This family’s tragedy has only begun.”
Chinese authorities had previously frozen Mr. Tohtis’ bank account, ostensibly to investigate the sources of the money. On Tuesday, the court ordered the confiscation of all of his assets.
Mr. Tohti has two sons, ages 5 and 8, who are living in Beijing with his wife, Ms. Nu’er.
In an emotional telephone interview on Monday night, Ms. Nu’er said she had not expected the charges to be so harsh and had yet to tell her sons about their father’s plight. “I will tell them what happened when they grow up,” she said.
She added: “I’m not worried about my husband’s spirit. It’s his health I worry about. He has heart problems and bad lungs.
“No matter what happens, I will wait for him to come home,” she said. “We will wait forever.”
Mr. Tohti has a daughter from an earlier relationship, Jewher Ilham, who is attending Indiana University in Bloomington, where Mr. Tohti was to have taken up a post as a visiting scholar before the Chinese police prevented him from boarding a plane with Ms. Ilham in February 2013.
The police then intensified their scrutiny and harassment of Mr. Tohti after a car crash in October 2013 that killed and injured tourists near Tiananmen Square; Chinese officials said the crash was the work of hostile Uyghurs. The police actions culminated in the detention of Mr. Tohti in January.
For years, officials in East Turkistan (Xinjiang (East Turkistan)) had been intent on silencing Mr. Tohti, despite the fact that he is a Beijing resident, and the East Turkistan (Xinjiang (East Turkistan)) government was obviously given permission by the central authorities to make its move in 2013, Mr. Tohti’s associates say.
Foreign governments have condemned China for its treatment of Mr. Tohti. Several Western nations tried sending diplomats to the trial, but they were turned away at the courthouse, which was heavily guarded by police officers, some carrying riot shields. Foreign journalists were also barred from attending the trial.
“Professor Tohti has consistently supported human rights for China’s ethnic Uyghur citizens,” a spokesman for the United States Embassy in Beijing said during the trial. “His arrest silenced an important Uyghur voice that peacefully promoted harmony and understanding among China’s ethnic groups, particularly Uyghurs. We stress the importance of Chinese authorities differentiating between peaceful dissent and violent extremism.”
The United States government has called on China to release Mr. Tohti and the seven students who have been detained.
The PEN American Center, which campaigns for freedom of expression andgave Mr. Tohti an award in March 2014, three months after he had been detained, released a statement Tuesday that said, “His conviction makes a mockery of China’s professed commitment to social harmony by silencing one of the country’s unifying voices and, with it, fellow Uyghur writers who are now unlikely to dare speak out.”
Maya Wang, a researcher for Human Rights Watch, said she could not recall any ethnic Han advocates or dissidents receiving a life sentence in recent years. But she said the authorities usually treat dissent by Uyghurs much more harshly, especially following ethnic rioting in Urumqi in 2009 that resulted in the deaths of at least 200 people, most of them Han. A Uyghur radio journalist, Memetjan Abdulla, was sentenced to life in prison in 2010.
Ms. Wang noted that the indictment of Mr. Tohti was consistent with a broad move in recent years by the Communist Party to silence advocates known for their “measured words and actions,” including Xu Zhiyong and Pu Zhiqiang, two well-known lawyers arrested for their political activities.
“These and Tohti’s harsh sentence are signs of just how far the authorities have gone in severely restricting the already limited civil liberties in China,” she said, “and that the situation might get even worse down the road.”
