Ilham Tohti
Ilham Tohti ( Uighur: ئىلھام توختى / Il ⱨ on Tohti, Chinese伊 力 哈 木 • 土 赫提, Pinyin Yīlìāmù · Tǔhètí ) (born 25 October 1969 in Artux Autonomous Area Kizilsu, Xinjiang, People's Republic of China ) is a Uighur economist, university teachers and government critics.
Life
Tohti graduated from the Pedagogical University of Northeast China, Changchun, Jilin Province in Manchuria and then went to Beijing to the School of Economic Sciences of the Central Nationalities University, which calls itself in English as " Minzu University of China ". There he worked in 2011 at the Institute for Economic Sciences.
Persecution as dissidents
In 2006, Tohti a website with the title Uyghur online with the purpose to establish a better relationship and understanding between Han Chinese and Uyghur. In 2008, the Chinese authorities closed this site, which was named by Radio Free Asia as " a modern, intellectual website that is dedicated to social issues ".
In March 2009 Tohti criticized in a radio interview the policy of the Chinese government in Xinjiang, particularly the settlement policy in relation to the Han Chinese. Through this policy, the problem of unemployment would be exacerbated among the Uyghur. He also criticized the governor of Xinjiang, Nur Bekri, whom he described as " unqualified ", and demanded strict implementation of the Chinese law for economic, regional autonomy for Xinjiang.
Tohti was arrested and interrogated several times because of allegations that he was a separatist early as March 2009. After the riots in Xinjiang's capital, Urumqi, in early July 2009 with more than 150 deaths in both Han Chinese and Uyghur, called the governor Bekri again active website Uyghur Online as the cause of the unrest. Tohti was arrested again. The writer and blogger Tsering Woeser and Wang Lixiong wrote in her blog, a petition for his release. More than 250 Han Chinese and also representatives of ethnic minorities such as the blogger Ran Yunfei, a member of the Tu minority the petition with a request to release Tohtis had already signed on July 14, 2009. Overall, the petition signed 397 people from 30 Ländern.Im August 2009 Tohti was released from prison. His journey liberty has been restricted in 2011. This also refers to his family members.
On January 15, 2014 Ilham Tohti and his mother was arrested by Chinese police in Beijing. His home was searched and seized his computer and phone.