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Ilham Tohti, formerly an economics professor at Beijing University, was arrested earlier this year. Photo: Ricky Wong

Uygur scholar Ilham Tohti to go on trial for separatism this week, says lawyer

An outspoken Chinese minority Uygur scholar accused of separatism will go on trial Wednesday in the country’s northwest, one of his lawyers said.

An outspoken Chinese minority Uygur scholar accused of separatism will go on trial Wednesday in the country’s northwest, one of his lawyers said.

Tohti will be tried by a court in Xinjiang’s capital Urumqi, said Liu Xiaoyuan, his lawyer and a Chinese human rights specialist.

Tohti, formerly an economics professor at Beijing University, was arrested earlier this year in Beijing amid rising tensions in the northwestern region of Xinjiang between Muslim Uygurs and majority Han people.

He has been a vocal critic of the government’s policies towards the Uygurs, who are concentrated in the restive western Xinjiang region.

Tohti is accused of activities aimed at overthrowing Chinese rule in Xinjiang – charges he denies. While a professor at Beijing University, he spoke openly about problems with China’s ethnic policies.

Authorities have blamed the deadly conflicts in Xinjiang on terrorists seeking a separate state, and have accused Tohti of fanning ethnic hatred and advocating independence.

Prosecutors in the Xinjiang region last month announced they were charging Tohti with separatism following his detention earlier this year, sparking renewed international calls for his release.

Another of his lawyers, Li Fangping, said Tohti has been shackled for more than a month while in lock-up. Shortly after he was detained, Tohti went on a hunger strike for 10 days in January to protest being served food that did not follow Islamic dietary laws, Li has said.

He also said Tohti was denied food for 10 days in March after an attack by Uighurs outside a train station killed 31 people in the southern city of Kunming.

Maya Wang, China researcher for Human Rights Watch, wrote on Twitter on Friday that Tohti faced between 15 years and life in prison if convicted.

China’s courts have a near-100 per cent conviction rate.

The charges come as China is cracking down on a series of violent attacks that it blames on religious extremists and “terrorists” seeking independence for the region.

Such violence has grown more frequent over the last year and has occurred in areas far beyond Xinjiang.

China blames militants from Xinjiang for an attack in Urumqi that killed 31 people in May, and for a March stabbing spree at a train station in the southwestern city of Kunming in which 29 people died.

Rights groups and many analysts and academics counter that the cause of the unrest can be found in state cultural and religious repression of Uygurs.

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