A Conference on Uyghur crisis and professor Ilham Tohti
Post Tagged with: "Ilham Tohti"
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China: Free Ilham Tohti
PEN International 21 February 2018 On International Mother Language Day, PEN International calls for the immediate and unconditional release of the imprisoned Uyghur writer Ilham Tohti. 21 February 2018 – Tohti is a public intellectual from China’s Uyghur minority and one the world’s foremost scholars on Uyghur issues. Arrested in January 2014, charged with ‘Splittism’ (advocating separatism) in July 2014, and convicted following an unfair trial on 23 September 2014, he was sentenced to life imprisonment and confiscation of all his property. Tohti’s appeal against his conviction and sentence was rejected in November 2014. Tohti has never promoted violence or separatism. In 2006, he co-founded the website Uyghur Online, aimed at promoting understanding between Uyghurs and Han Chinese. But his criticism of the Chinese authorities for their heavy-handed treatment of the Uyghur minority made him the target of frequent harassment. Following his initial arrest, the Bureau of Public Security for Urumqi alleged that Tohti had been using the website as a platform to recruit followers. PEN International first began working on Tohti’s case in 2009, following his detention for speaking out about ethnic unrest that broke out in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), on 5 July 2009. Initially placed under house arrest, he was later transferred to an unknown location where he was kept incommunicado before being released six weeks later. Further harassment followed, including periods spent under house arrest. Tohti is a member of Uyghur PEN and received the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award in 2014. He was an honorary Empty Chair at PEN International’s world congress in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, in 2014. Take Action: Write to the Chinese government: Calling for the immediate and unconditional release of the Uyghur writer and scholar, Ilham Tohti; Reminding them that as a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political […]
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Daughter of imprisoned Uighur scholar speaks out 7 years after he was arrested boarding flight to US
By Yael Halon | Fox News 23 July 2020 Jewhar Ilham and her father were preparing board their flight to the US when her father was arrested and later sentenced to life on separatism charges Watch the latest video at foxnews.com The daughter of an imprisoned Uighur scholar is on a mission to shed light on China’s human rights abuses after her father was arrested in Beijing’s International Airport and sentenced to a life behind bars on separatism charges. Jewhar Ilham told “Bill Hemmer Reports” Wednesday that her father Ilham Tohti was invited in February 2013 as a visiting scholar to Indiana University. Jewhar and her father were preparing to board their flight to the U.S. when her father was arrested. “2013, Feb. 2, was last time I saw my father at the Beijing International Airport,” Jewhar said. “He was invited by Indiana University as a visiting scholar and I was only planning to accompany him and spent three weeks as a vacation, but as a teenager, I appeared to have no threats to the government officials. I was allowed to leave the country, but my father was arrested at the airport.” US SPEAKS UP FOR MINORITY MUSLIM UIGHURS IN CHINA After being placed on house arrest for 11 months, Tohti, a well-known economics professor in Beijing, was given an unprecedented life sentence based on the writings on his website, Uyghur Online, that promoted peaceful coexistence between the Uyghur people and Han Chinese. “There are hundreds of thousands of daughters and sons just like me that can’t see their parents, cannot call their parents and cannot communicate. They don’t even know, just like me, if their parents are alive or not.” — Jewhar Ilham, ‘Bill Hemmer Reports’ “He was well-known for his peaceful suggestions and his website,” Jewhar said. “My father wanted to use this website to create understanding and to promote peaceful dialogue or coexistence between the Uighurs people and the Han Chinese.” Because many social media outlets and search engines […]
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Three Students of Uyghur Scholar Ilham Tohti Formally Arrested
RFA Uyghur 201-02-26 Chinese authorities in Xinjiang have formally arrested three students of detained Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti on charges of “splittism” and “revealing state secrets,” while the fate of two other students remains unknown, their instructor’s wife said Wednesday. Authorities informed the families of Perhat Halmurat, Shohret Tursun and Abdukeyum Ablimit—who have been in custody for more than a month—by telephone on Feb. 24 of the charges against the trio and confirmed that they were placed in facilities in the Xinjiang capital Urumqi, Tohti’s wife Guzelnur said. “Perhat and Shohret have been charged with ‘splittism,’ while Abdukeyum was charged with ‘revealing state secrets,’” Guzelnur said, citing a conversation she had with Halmurat’s parents. “They are in Urumqi … The parents are trying to find out which prison,” she said, adding that the families of the students had been served with formal documents the day after authorities notified them of their arrests by telephone. She said it was unclear in which detention center the three were being held. Guzelnur informed RFA’s Uyghur Service earlier this week that her husband had been moved to the Urumqi from Beijing and formally charged with “splittism” by local authorities on Feb. 20. He faces a maximum of life in prison if convicted, according to his lawyer. An outspoken scholar, Tohti has been a vocal critic of the Chinese government’s treatment of Uyghurs, whose homeland is in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and who complain of discrimination by the authorities and the country’s majority Han Chinese. Guzelnur said that the families of the student trio are currently working to find them legal representation. Calls to the families by RFA on Wednesday resulted in messages indicating that their phones had been disconnected. Halmurat and Tursun had been taken into custody in the capital Beijing where they […]
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