Chinese authorities give Uyghur scholar life sentence

China has allegedly imprisoned a well-known Uyghur scholar for the rest of his life. He is accused of posing a threat to the country’s safety.

Rahile Dawut’s sentence was approved after she asked for a review of her case in 2018, as reported by the US-based human rights group, Dui Hua Foundation.

The professor, who is 57 years old, tried to change a decision but she was not successful this month.

China has been accused of committing very serious crimes against the Uyghur people and other ethnic groups in Xinjiang, who are mostly Muslims.

Human rights organizations think that China has forcefully imprisoned over one million Uyghurs for a number of years in a vast system of camps that the government refers to as “re-education camps”.

It has caused many people to go to jail for a long time.

John Kamm, executive director of the Dui Hua Foundation, said that the punishment given to Professor Rahile Dawut is a very sad event. It is a big loss for the Uyghur community and for those who value the right to study and learn freely.

He asked for her to be let go right away and brought back safely to her family.

Her daughter, Akeda Pulati, said she is always concerned about her mother.

I feel really sad when I think about my innocent mom having to spend her whole life in prison. “China, please be kind and set my innocent mother free,” she said in a message shared by Dui Hua.

In December 2018, Ms. Dawut had a trial in a court in Xinjiang. She was arrested the year before for a crime called “splittism”, which means she was accused of putting the country’s security at risk.

A person from the Chinese government confirmed that Dui Hua has been sentenced to life in prison, the group announced.

Ms Dawut is really good at knowing about Uyghur stories and customs. She used to teach at Xinjiang University College of Humanities before she was taken into custody.

In 2007, she started the Ethnic Minorities Research Centre at the university. She also did research in Xinjiang by visiting different places and studying the people living there. She taught at universities in the United States and United Kingdom, including prestigious ones like Harvard and Cambridge.

Dui Hua stated that Ms. Dawut is one of many Uyghur intellectuals who have been captured, taken into custody, and put in jail since 2016.

Many countries, including the US, accuse China of committing genocide in Xinjiang. China is being accused by important human rights organizations, Amnesty and Human Rights Watch, of committing terrible crimes against people.

China says that the accusations are not true.

According to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Mao Ning, she does not have any information regarding Ms Dawut’s case.

There are around 12 million Uyghurs, who are mostly Muslim, living in Xinjiang. Xinjiang is also known as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and is located in the northwest of China.

New information gathered by the BBC in 2022 showed that China has been using “re-education camps” and that they often have armed officers. The documents also mentioned a policy where officers are allowed to shoot and potentially kill anyone who tries to escape from these camps.