“He wanted me to stay in a land that has freedom,” “
Jewher Ilham, daughter of Ilham Tohti, sentenced to life imprisonment and confiscation of all of his possession sfor writing about the rights of the Uigar people of western China. Ms. Ilham is a student in Indiana.
Ilham Tohti has been sentenced to life imprisonment and confiscation of all of his possession for writing about the rights of the Uigar people of western China.
Mr. Tohti is known as a moderate voice,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.
IlhamTohti ‘s wife, Guzulnur, and their two young children in China will have no means of support.
The court claimed its punishment was because Professor Tohti had “bewitched and coerced” students and “built a criminal syndicate.” He “organized this group to write, edit, translate and reprint articles seeking Xinjiang’s separation from China,” “Through online instigation, Tohti encouraged his fellow Uygurs to use violence.”
Speaking in his own defense Thursday, Iham Tohti denied that he had encouraged separatism while addressing Xinjiang’s cultural and legal challenges.