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Uygur teacher jailed for separatism
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A UYGUR teacher was yesterday sentenced to life in prison for separatism, Xinhua news agency reported.
Ilham Tohti, 44, an economics professor at Beijing’s Minzu University of China, took advantage of his status to spread separatist thoughts over the Internet, said the Urumqi Intermediate People’s Court in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
The court heard that Tohti, who also had his personal property confiscated under the ruling, promoted separatist thinking in lessons delivered via Uygur Online, a website he set up in 2006.
He “bewitched and coerced young ethnic students to work for the website and built a criminal syndicate,” the ruling said.
Tohti also organized students to write, edit, translate and reprint articles seeking Xinjiang’s “separation” from China. The articles attacked China’s ethnic, religious, economic and family planning policies, and incited ethnic hatred by distorting the causes of a number of riots that occurred in Xinjiang and Beijing, the court ruled.
According to a report by the Chinese-language version of the Global Times, Uygur Online was particularly active about the time of the Urumqi riots in 2009, in which 197 people were killed and 1,600 were injured.
The website had been forced to close on several occasions in the past for recklessly spreading rumors, the report said.
The case against Tohti became public on January 25, when Urumqi police announced a list of criminal offenses against him.
A police statement claimed Tohti encouraged the use of violence to oppose the government — just as China opposed Japanese invaders during World War II — and alleged that he referred to the terrorists killed in riots with police as “heroes.”
Through the Uygur Online website he recruited people to stir up trouble, spread separatist thinking, incite ethnic hatred and engage in separatist activities, the court said.
He also had ties with the East Turkistan Islamic Movement terrorist group, which has been blamed for several violent attacks, the court said.
On July 10, courts in Xinjiang sentenced 32 people to prison terms for spreading terror-related messages and organizing terrorist groups.
After nine months in detention, Tohti appeared in court last Wednesday.
His sentencing came two days after a series of explosions killed two people and injured several others in Xinjiang’s Bayingolin Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture.
The number of terror-related gangs busted in Xinjiang increased from about 140 in 2010 to more than 200 last year, according to regional authorities.
Since last year, terrorists have launched attacks in Xinjiang as well as Beijing and the southwestern city of Kunming, causing heavy casualties.
In late July, 37 people were killed and 13 were injured in a terrorist attack in Shache County in Xinjiang. Police gunned down 59 terrorists and arrested 215 others.
In May, an attack on a market in Urumqi, Xinjiang’s regional capital, left 31 dead and 94 injured.
On October 28 last year, a jeep crashed in Beijing’s Tian’anmen Square, causing five deaths and 40 injuries. Police found gasoline, knives and a flag with an extremist message inside the vehicle.
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