China jails Uighur scholar for life for 'separatism'

Analysts say the prosecution of Ilham Tohti risks silencing moderate Uighur voices and cutting off the possibility of dialogue.

BEIJING // A court imposed a life sentence on a prominent scholar from China’s mostly-Muslim Uighur minority for “separatism” – an unusually harsh sentence for a moderate critic of Beijing’s policies in the restive Xinjiang region.

The United States, the European Union, and several human rights groups have called for the release of Ilham Tohti. Analysts say his prosecution risks silencing moderate Uighur voices and cutting off the possibility of dialogue.

Mr Tohti, a former university professor and advocate for minority rights in the vast western region, will certainly appeal the sentence passed by a court in Xinjiang, said his lawyer.

He was detained in January after he criticised the government’s response to a suicide car attack last October in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, which the government blamed on separatists from Xinjiang.

The Xinjiang region – home to about 10 million members of the Uighur minority – has in the last year been hit by a string of attacks on civilians and clashes which have killed at least 200 people.

China blames unrest on organised militant groups seeking independence for Xinjiang. Rights groups say that discrimination and government repression of the Uighurs has fuelled violence.

China has cracked down on dissent under the leadership of President Xi Jinping, with dozens of academics, journalists and activists detained or jailed – though Mr Tohti’s is the heaviest sentence handed out to a dissident in years.

* Agence France-Presse