BEIJING Wed Sep 24, 2014 5:19am EDT
.jpg)
Uighur academic Ilham Tohti sits during his trial on separatism charges in Urumqi, Xinjiang region, in this still image taken from video shot on September 17-18, 2014.
CREDIT: REUTERS/CCTV VIA REUTERS TV
(Reuters) – China’s most prominent advocate for the rights of Muslim Uighur people will appeal against a life prison sentence that drew criticism from Western countries including the United States, his lawyer said on Wednesday.
A court in the western region of Xinjiang sentenced economics professor Ilham Tohti, 44, on separatism charges on Tuesday. The United States, the European Union and international rights groups condemned the sentence.
Tohti, who is an ethnic Uighur, is the latest moderate intellectual to be convicted by Chinese President Xi Jinping’s administration.
The government has blamed a series of violent attacks in which hundreds of people have been killed on Islamist militants from Xinjiang who it says want to establish an independent state there called East Turkestan.
But Tohti, who taught at Beijing’s Minzu University, which specialises in ethnic minority studies, has said he never associated with any terrorist organization or foreign-based group and “relied only on pen and paper to diplomatically request” human rights and legal rights for Uighurs.
His lawyer, Li Fangping, told Reuters by telephone from Xinjiang there was little chance the appeal would bring a reduction in Tohti’s sentence.
“Very slim, almost zero,” he said. “But he wants to appeal to express his dissatisfaction with the sentence.”
In the appeal statement – posted by Li on the messaging app Wechat – Li cited irregularities during Tohti’s detention. Tohti was denied food for more than 10 days and kept in leg irons for at least 40 days, according to Li.
