Jun 17, 2014

East-Turkestan: China’s Detention of Uyghur Scholar Worrisome


The Minzu University economics professor Ilham Tohti, charged with separatism, may have been secretly tried and heavily sentenced according to sources of his lawyer, Li Fangping. Li has not been able to communicate with Tohti, calls from Reuters to the police in Urumqi were unanswered and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also declined to comment on Tohti’s case. PEN American Center that awarded Tohti a human rights prize, stated that they are “deeply troubled” by the reports that suggest Tohti has been tried in secret.

Below is an article published by World Bulletin:

Tohti's lawyer said on Tuesday [17 June 2014] that sources have told him that the Minzu University economics professor, who was detained in January and later charged with separatism, may have been secretly tried and given a heavy jail sentence.

Concerns about the prolonged detention in China of prominent Uighur academic Ilham Tohti are rising amid a crackdown by Beijing on separatists it says are seeking to establish an independent East Turkestan state in the far west.

Tohti's lawyer said on Tuesday [17 June 2014] that sources have told him that the Minzu University economics professor, who was detained in January [2014] and later charged with separatism, may have been secretly tried and given a heavy jail sentence.

Li Fangping said police wouldn't say whether a secret trial had taken place. Calls by Reuters to police in Urumqi, the capital of the East Turkestan (Xinjiang) region, went unanswered. China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs declined to comment on Tohti's case.

"Someone finally picked up the phone at the Urumqi public security bureau late yesterday [16 June 2014]," Li said. "They didn't confirm or deny that a trial had taken place."

Tohti's case underscores the government's crackdown on dissent in East Turkestan, which has been plagued by a series of attacks in public places. East Turkestan is the traditional home of the Uighur ethnic minority group.

Li said he had repeatedly called public security authorities, and he had not been able to communicate with Tohti.

"I simply don't dare to believe it, there's no way to confirm it," Li wrote on a social media app earlier. "If it really can be like this, I have no idea what route the legal process can take."

Tohti was known for championing the rights of the mostly Muslim Uighurs. Rights groups say the outspoken academic from the university in Beijing is being unfairly punished.

The PEN American Center said in a statement it was "deeply troubled" by reports that he may have been tried in secret. The organisation awarded Tohti a human rights prize in April [2014].

China executed 13 people for "terrorist attacks" in different parts of East Turkestan on Monday [16 June 2014] and sentenced another three to death for a lethal attack at Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

Footage aired on state broadcaster China Central Television on Tuesday showed the 13 defendents standing on an outdoor platform, where they were sentenced before hundreds of people who appeared to be mainly Uighur.

Exiled Uighur groups and rights activists say the government's own repressive policies in East Turkestan have stoked unrest - a claim Beijing strongly denies.