BEIJING (AP) – A Chinese court imposed a life sentence Tuesday on a moderate scholar who championed the country’s Uighur minority, the most severe penalty in a decade for anyone in China convicted of illegal political speech.
The Urumqi People’s Intermediate Court handed down the sentence after convicting Ilham Tohti of separatism in a two-day trial, lawyer Li Fangping said by telephone from outside the courthouse. The court didn’t answer calls seeking information about the trial.
Li said the court also ordered the confiscation of all of Ilham Tohti’s possessions.
The 44-year-old defendant was calm during the session but shouted “I don’t accept this!” when the sentence was read, Li said.
He is known as a moderate voice with ties to both the country’s Han Chinese establishment and the Muslim Uighur ethnic group, which has long complained of harsh treatment by the government in the far western Xinjiang region. A Communist Party member and professor at Beijing’s Minzu University, Ilham Tohti ran a website, Uighur Online, that highlighted issues affecting the ethnic group. Chinese authorities detained the scholar in January along with seven of his students.