Ilham Tohti sentenced to life imprisonment
On 15 January 2018, Ilham Tohti completed his fourth year in Chinese detention. The human rights defender, economics professor and advocate for the rights of China’s Uyghur minority was arrested following a raid on his home on 15 January 2014. During the course of his incarceration, Ilham Tohti has been subjected to recurring violations of international human rights standards with regard to detention conditions such as limitations of family visits, intercepted communication, solitary confinement, deprivation of food and intimidation. Ilham Tohti’s family and colleagues have also been subjected to judicial harassment.
Ilham Tohti is a professor at the Central University for Nationalities in Beijing and has been consistently outspoken on Uyghur rights in China. He has been detained numerous times previously as a result of his advocacy.
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- 15 January 2018 : Four Years have passed since the detention of Ilham Tohti
- 23 September 2014 : Human rights defender Mr Ilham Tohti sentenced to life imprisonment
- 31 July 2014 : Human rights defender formally indicted on 'separatism' charges
- 27 June 2014 : Human rights defender Mr Ilham Tohti finally granted access to lawyer, who reveals he was deprived of food for ten days
- 25 February 2014 : Uyghur academic and human rights defender Mr Ilham Tohti formally arrested following incommunicado detention
- 16 January 2014 : Detention of Uyghur academic and human rights defender Mr Ilham Tohti
- 4 February 2013 : Uyghur human rights defender Mr Ilham Tohti prevented from leaving country
On 15 January 2018, Ilham Tohti completed his fourth year in Chinese detention. The human rights defender, economics professor and advocate for the rights of China’s Uyghur minority was arrested following a raid on his home on 15 January 2014. During the course of his incarceration, Ilham Tohti has been subjected to recurring violations of international human rights standards with regard to detention conditions such as limitations of family visits, intercepted communication, solitary confinement, deprivation of food and intimidation. Ilham Tohti’s family and colleagues have also been subjected to judicial harassment.
Ilham Tohti formerly lectured as a professor at the Central University for Nationalities in Beijing. He has conducted research and written numerous articles on topics related to human rights violations in China’s northwestern Xinjiang Province, the homeland of China’s sharply repressed Uyghur minority. In 2006, the human rights defender founded Uyghur Online, a Chinese-language website for the dissemination of Uyghur-centric news. Across this platform, Ilham Tohti regularly criticised the exclusion of China’s Uyghur population from Chinese development, and encouraged greater awareness of the status and treatment of the Uyghur community in Chinese society. For these actions, Ilham Tohti was declared a “separatist” by the Chinese state and ultimately given a life sentence in prison.
Following his arrest on 15 January 2014, Ilham Tohti was tried at the Urumqi City Intermediate People’s Court on 23 September 2014. He was found guilty of “separatism” and sentenced to life in prison. Seven of the human rights defender’s students were arrested in the same year, and his niece was arrested in early 2016 for possessing photos of and articles written by the HRD on her phone. On 10 October 2016, Ilham Tohti was granted the Martin Ennals Human Rights Award.
On the fourth anniversary of Ilham Tohti’s arrest, Front Line Defenders reiterates its call for the human rights defender’s immediate and unconditional release and for the quashing of his sentence. His peaceful work promoting the rights of China’s Uyghur population has been met with ceaseless harassment by Chinese authorities, whose actions Front Line Defenders believe to be solely intended to silence Ilham Tohti and put an end to his human rights work.
On 23 September 2014, human rights defender Mr Ilham Tohti was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Urumqi People's Intermediate Court.
The sentence was handed down at around 1:00 pm on allegations of “separatism” after a two-day trial. The court also ordered the confiscation of all of Ilham Tohti's possessions. When the sentence was read out, Ilham Tohti reportedly stated “I do not accept this!” and was escorted out of court by a bailiff. His lawyer has said that he will appeal the verdict.
In 2006, Ilham Tohti set up the moderate Uyghur Online website to discuss social issues involving Uyghur-Han relations, in articles published both in Chinese and Uyghur. Chinese authorities alleged this website played a role in instigating the violent unrest in Xinjiang province in 2009 which left up to 200 people dead. Consequently, this website was shut down and Ilham Tohti was questioned repeatedly by police who accused him of “separatism”. More recently, he ran the Uyghur Biz website, which was hosted overseas.
Ilham Tohti was originally detained after a raid on his home in Beijing on 15 January 2014 and, for the first twenty days of his detention, his legs were shackled. From 16 to 26 January 2014, the human rights defender was on hunger strike to protest the failure to provide halal foods in the detention centre. Shortly after, his Uyghur Biz website was shut down and has since been inaccessible.
In February, the human rights defender was formally arrested on charges of “separatism”. Following a violent attack in the city of Kunming by suspected Uyghur militants that resulted in the death of 29 people, Ilham Tohti was deprived of food in detention between 1 and 10 March 2014. He was finally permitted to meet with a lawyer on 26 June 2014. On 30 July 2014, the human rights defender was formally indicted on charges of “separatism” in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang Province in north-western China.
On 17 September 2014, Ilham Tohti's lawyers submitted three requests that his case be tried at Beijing First Intermediate People's Court for fear of a risk of an unfair verdict should the trial take place in Urumqi City Intermediate People's Court.
On 23 September 2014, the European Union issued statement 140923/01 condemning Ilham Tohti's sentencing as “completely unjustified”. The EU stated that the due process of law was not respected, “in particular with regard to the right to a proper defence” and called for Ilham Tohti's immediate and unconditional release as well as the release of all his supporters detained in relation to his case.
On 30 July 2014, Uyghur human rights defender Mr Ilham Tohti was formally indicted on charges of 'separatism' in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang Province in north-western China.
Following his arrest in January 2014, the human rights defender was denied access to lawyers for over two months and has been deprived of food while in detention.
Until his arrest earlier this year, Ilham Tohti was a professor of Economics at the Central Minorities University in Beijing. The human rights defender had regularly criticised Chinese government policy in Xinjiang province, arguing that the Uyghur population has been largely excluded from its development plans.
Ilham Tohti was originally detained after a raid on his home in Beijing on 15 January 2014 and, for the first twenty days of his detention, his legs were shackled. From 16 to 26 January 2014, the human rights defender was on hunger strike to protest the failure to provide halal foods in the detention centre. In February, he was formally arrested on charges of separatism. Following a violent attack in the city of Kunming by suspected Uyghur militants that resulted in the death of 29 people, Ilham Tohti was deprived of food in detention between 1 and 10 March 2014. He was finally permitted to meet with a lawyer on 26 June 2014. It is reported that the human rights defender has lost 16 kilogrammes in weight since his arrest.
In 2006, Ilham Tohti set up the moderate Uyghur Online website to discuss social issues involving Uyghur-Han relations, in articles published both in Chinese and Uyghur. Chinese authorities alleged this website played a role in instigating the violent unrest in Xinjiang province in 2009 which left up to 200 people dead. Consequently, the site was shut down and Ilham Tohti was questioned repeatedly by police who accused him of separatism. More recently, he ran the Uyghur Biz website, which was hosted overseas. Shortly after his arrest in January 2014, this website was shut down and has since been inaccessible.
On 26 June 2014 human rights defender Mr Ilham Tohti, who has been in custody for over five months, was finally permitted to see his lawyer, Mr Li Fangping. The lawyer reported that the human rights defender was deprived of food for ten days during his detention.
Li Fangping met the human rights defender in a detention centre in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang Province. The lawyer stated that from 1-10 March 2014, Ilham Tohti, an ethnic Uyghur, was deprived of food after a violent attack was carried out in the city of Kunming by suspected Uyghur militants, leading to the death of 29 people. Li Fangping reported that the human rights defender had lost 16 kilogrammes since his arrest. According to the lawyer, for the first twenty days of his detention, Ilham Tohti's legs were shackled, and from 16-26 January 2014, he was on hunger strike, reportedly because of the failure to provide halal foods in the detention centre.
During the meeting, the human rights defender restated his innocence and reiterated that everything he had done was to promote the common interests of both the Uyghur and Han communities. Ilham Tohti was originally detained after a raid on his home in Beijing on 15 January 2014 and, the following month, was formally arrested on charges of separatism.
On 25 February 2014 it was confirmed that Mr Ilham Tohti has been formally arrested on charges of separatism and is being held in a detention centre in Xinjiang province. The punishment for a charge of separatism ranges from ten years to life imprisonment, although there is also the possibilty of a death sentence.
He had been detained by police in Beijing on 15 January 2014 after a raid by over 20 police officers on his home. Following this, his family were provided with no information as to why he was taken or where he was being held. On 25 February, Ilham Tohti's wife received an arrest warrant for her husband, stating that he was facing charges of separatism and was being held in a detention centre in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang province. Ilham Tohti's lawyer, Mr Li Fangping, had previously travelled to Urumqi and requested to see the human rights defender but was not permitted to do so.
On 15 January 2014, Mr Ilham Tohti, an economics professor at the Central University for Nationalities in Beijing, was detained by police following a raid on his home that afternoon.
According to a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, he was detained on suspicion of 'breaking the law'. Ilham Tohti has been consistently outspoken on Uyghur rights in China and critical of official policy in Xinjiang province, the homeland of China's Muslim Uyghur population. He has been detained numerous times previously as a result of his advocacy.
At around 2pm on 15 January 2014, more than 20 police officers, reportedly from Xinjiang and Beijing, carried out a raid on the home of Ilham Tohti, who was in the apartment with his mother and two young sons at the time. Ilham Tohti's mother was also taken by police and was reportedly held until 10.30 that evening. The human rights defender's wife told reporters that at the time of the raid no reason was given to her for her husband's detention, and that computers and mobile phones were seized in the raid. His current whereabouts are unknown.
Ilham Tohti has regularly criticised Chinese government policy in Xinjiang province, arguing that the Uyghur population has been largely left out of its development. He has also been outspoken on the government's handling of unrest in the region, which has flared in recent years. He most recently questioned the official version of events following an attack in Tiananmen Square in October 2013 when a car ploughed into a group of people on a crowded footpath before going on fire. Two pedestrians were killed and 40 were injured. The three Uyghur occupants of the car, who all died in the incident, were described by Beijing as Islamic militants. Ilham Tohti questioned this characterization, pointing out to international reporters that many Han Chinese had resorted to other extreme actions to “express their frustration to society” which had also resulted in the harming of innocent people.
Ilham Tohti has been subjected to regular surveillance, interrogation and periods of house arrest in Beijing as a result of his advocacy on Uyghur rights. In February 2013, Front Line Defenders reported that he was prevented from leaving China to take up a year long university position in the United States. In October 2012 he was sent back to his home town in Xinjiang for the duration of the 18th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. In 2010 he reported that he had been denied permission eight times to travel abroad to attend academic conferences.
In 2006 Ilham Tohti set up the moderate Uyghur Online website to discuss social issues involving Uyghur-Han relations, in articles published both in Chinese and Uyghur. Chinese authorities alleged this website played a role in instigating the violent unrest in Xinjiang province in 2009 which left up to 200 people dead. Following this the site was shut down and Ilham Tohti was questioned repeatedly by police who accused him of separatism. He now runs the Uyghur Biz website which is hosted overseas and is blocked in China. That website has been attacked in recent days and is currently inaccessible.
On 2 February 2013, prominent Uyghur intellectual Mr Ilham Tohti and his teenage daughter were prevented from boarding a flight bound for the United States at Beijing Capital Airport by a number of security officials.
At approximately 8.45am on 2 February 2013, Ilham Tohti and his daughter were reportedly detained as they were going through security clearances at Beijing Capital Airport. The two were due to fly to the United States where Ilham Tohti was to take up a year-long position at Indiana University. He and his daughter were taken to interrogation rooms at the airport and questioned for a lengthy period of time.
While his daughter was eventually permitted to board a US-bound flight, Ilham Tohti told reporters he was held until 9pm that evening before being sent back to his Beijing residence. He was provided with no information by the police officers questioning him as to why he was being detained or prevented from travelling to the US.
Ilham Tohti has been subjected to regular surveillance, interrogation and periods of house arrest in Beijing. He and his family have also been previously targeted with travel bans. In October 2012 he was sent back to his home town in Xinjiang province for the duration of the 18th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. In 2010 he reported that he had been denied permission eight times to travel abroad to attend academic conferences.
In 2006 Ilham Tohti set up the moderate Uyghur Online website to discuss social issues involving Uyghur-Han relations, in articles published both in Chinese and Uyghur. Chinese authorities alleged this website played a role in instigating the violent unrest in Xinjiang province in 2009 which left up to 200 people dead. Following this the site was shut down and Ilham Tohti was questioned repeatedly by police who accused him of separatism. He currently runs the Uyghur Biz website which is hosted overseas and is blocked in China.
Front Line Defenders believes that the prevention of human rights defender Ilham Tohti from leaving China is directly related to his work in defence of human rights and the exercise of his right to freedom of expression, and constitutes a flagrant breach of his right of freedom of movement.
