A group of leading rights organizations has awarded its annual prize for human rights defenders to imprisoned Chinese Uighur economics professor Ilham Tohti, shining new attention on a case that has brought strong international condemnation.
The Martin Ennals Award is bestowed by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and eight other human-rights groups. The award ceremony was scheduled to take place last night in Geneva, Switzerland.
Tohti, 46, was given a life sentence on charges of separatism in September 2014 after a two-day trial.
Photo: AP
A member of the Turkic Muslim Uighur ethnic group, he taught at Beijing’s Minzu University and was an outspoken critic of Beijing’s ethnic policies in Xinjiang. Tohti denied Beijing’s relentless accusations of advocating separatism and violence.
Tohti has “sought reconciliation by bringing to light repressive Chinese policies and Uyghur grievances. This is information the Chinese government has sought to keep behind a veil of silence,” the group said in a statement.
“He remains a voice of moderation and reconciliation in spite of how he has been treated,” the statement said.
Prevented from publishing, Tohti turned to the Internet, running the site Uyghurbiz.net to foster discussion about the economic, social and developmental issues Uighurs face.
Seven of Tohti’s students were also sentenced in what was seen as a move to strengthen the government’s case against him.
Authorities accused Tohti and his students of forming a criminal gang that sought to split Xinjiang from China.
Tohti’s sentence was one of the harshest handed down to a government critic in recent years. He was tried and imprisoned in Xinjiang, more than 2,000km from Beijing, making it difficult and expensive for his family to see him in brief bimonthly visits.
Tohti’s trial and sentencing brought statements of condemnation from numerous Western governments and the EU, and in January this year several hundred academics petitioned China’s government to release him.
“The real shame of this situation is that by eliminating the moderate voice of Ilham Tohti, the Chinese government is in fact laying the groundwork for the very extremism it says it wants to prevent,” said Dick Oosting, chairman of the foundation that presents the award, named after a former secretary-general of Amnesty International.
At a regular briefing, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Geng Shuang (耿爽) reiterated the authorities’ allegation that Tohti was inciting others to participate in terrorist activities and “has nothing to do with human rights.”
Tohti is also one of four candidates for the EU’s prestigious Sakharov Prize for human rights awarded later this month.
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