US demands release of Uygur scholar Rahile Dawut, given reported life sentence by China

Name: UN human rights body says China may have committed crimes against humanity in Xinjiang
Uploaded: 2023-10-03T16:49:20.000Z
Duration: 2 min 47 s
Description: UN human rights body says China may have committed crimes against humanity in Xinjiang

State Department says Dawut’s imprisonment is part of Beijing’s efforts to ‘eradicate Uygur identity and culture and undermine academic freedom’

The prominent anthropologist and folklorist, characterised as apolitical and a moderate, has been missing since December 2017

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The Uygur academic Rahile Dawut has reportedly been sentenced to life in prison by Beijing. Photo: Handout

Bochen Hanin Washington

Published: 12:49am, 4 Oct 2023Updated: 2:14am, 4 Oct 2023

The United States has condemned China’s apparent sentencing of Uygur intellectual Rahile Dawut to life imprisonment and called for her immediate release.

On Tuesday, the US House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party “strongly condemned” the sentence.

“Professor Dawut and all other illegally imprisoned individuals must be released immediately,” it said in a statement.

On Friday, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Dawut’s life sentence was “part of an apparent broader effort by the [People’s Republic of China] to eradicate Uygur identity and culture and undermine academic freedom”, citing the imprisonment of other Uygur scholars like Ilham Tohti.

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UN human rights body says China may have committed crimes against humanity in Xinjiang

Dawut is a prominent anthropologist and folklorist who has been missing since December 2017.