Ilham Tohti : Chinese Uighur Scholar Sentenced to Life in Prison

Ilham Tohti, an advocate for the rights of Muslim ethnic group, jailed by court in China on separatism charges.

A Chinese court has sentenced the country’s most prominent advocate for the rights of Muslim Uighur people to life in prison on separatism charges, his lawyer has said, in a case that has provoked an international outcry.

Experts say it is one of the toughest penalties in more than a decade for a case against an outspoken critic of the state.

Tohti earlier spoke about what it was like being placed under house arrest.

“I have been reflecting on my situation in the past three years,” he said in February 2013. “ In fact I am like a prisoner living in a cage. They don’t let me do anything. If I give interviews, they harass me or my family. They threaten me, I can’t teach anymore, they don’t let me make a living to support my family. Why?”

Tohti became well known as a moderate voice on the question of the Muslim Uighur ethnic group, which has long complained of unfair treatment by authorities in China.

Agencies/Canadajournal