RNA - A court in the Xinjiang region of north-west China sentenced the country’s most prominent peaceful advocate for the rights of Muslim Uighur people to life in prison for inciting separatism on Tuesday.
According to the Chinese news outlets, Ilham Tohti, a former economics professor at Minzu University of China in Beijing, is known as a moderate Uighur intellectual and critic of the government’s ethnic policies.
He advocates increased autonomy and equal rights for Xinjiang’s minority groups. The 44-year-old has firmly denied the charge.
He ran a Chinese language website about issues affecting his community, Uighurbiz, that was popular among Han and overseas scholars before it was shut down.
“This is a very cruel result,” said Woeser, a Tibetan activist and friend of Mr Tohti. “His words and actions demonstrate that he has never argued for separatism.”
The harsh sentence was met with dismay among rights advocates, who have come under increasing pressure from the government.
"It's very shocking, much harsher than anybody expected," said Maya Wang of the New York-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch.
"It's quite unprecedented for someone who is so prominent."
The United States, the European Union and human rights groups have called for Tohti's release after a nine-month detention widely seen as part of a government crackdown on dissent in Xinjiang,
The charge of separatism carries a maximum penalty of death in extreme cases.
"It signifies that China is taking a hardline stance towards any Uighur moderates trying to put forward solutions that differ from the party's approach," William Nee, China researcher at Amnesty International, said of the sentence.
Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the exiled World Uyghur Congress, accused China of stifling Uighur voices.
"China has sent a clear message ... thoroughly disappointing all those who hope to use the legal process or reasonable proposals to change the status quo of Uighurs," Raxit said in an e-mailed statement.
Uighur Muslims are a Turkish-speaking minority of eight million in the northwestern Xinjiang region.
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