2015 prison census - China: Ilham Tohti, Perhat Halmurat, Shohret Nijat, Luo Yuwei, Mutellip Imin, Abduqeyum Ablimit, Atikem Rozi, Akbar Imin

Ilham Tohti, Uighurbiz
Medium:Internet
Charge:Anti-state
Imprisoned:January 15, 2014
Perhat Halmurat, Uighurbiz
Medium:Internet
Charge:Anti-state
Imprisoned:January or February 2014
Shohret Nijat, Uighurbiz
Medium:Internet
Charge:Anti-state
Imprisoned:January or February 2014
Luo Yuwei, Uighurbiz
Medium:Internet
Charge:Anti-state
Imprisoned:January or February 2014
Mutellip Imin, Uighurbiz
Medium:Internet
Charge:Anti-state
Imprisoned:January or February 2014
Abduqeyum Ablimit, Uighurbiz
Medium:Internet
Charge:Anti-state
Imprisoned:January or February 2014
Atikem Rozi, Uighurbiz
Medium:Internet
Charge:Anti-state
Imprisoned:January or February 2014
Akbar Imin, Uighurbiz
Medium:Internet
Charge:Anti-state
Imprisoned:January or February 2014

Tohti, a Uighur scholar, writer, and blogger, was taken from his home by police on January 15, 2014, and the Uighurbiz website he founded, also known as UighurOnline, was closed. The site, which Tohti started in 2006, was published in Chinese and Uighur, and focused on social issues.

Tohti was charged with separatism by Urumqi police on February 20, 2014. He was accused of using his position as a lecturer at Minzu University of China to spread separatist ideas through Uighurbiz. On September 23, 2014, at the Urumqi Intermediate People's Court, Tohti was sentenced to life imprisonment. He denied the charges.

Several foreign governments and human rights organizations protested the sentence. The European Union released a statement condemning the life sentence as unjustified. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the U.S. was concerned by the sentencing and called on Chinese authorities to release him, along with seven of his students.

Tohti's appeal request was rejected at a hearing in a Xinjiang detention center on November 21, 2014, that was scheduled at such short notice that his lawyer was unable to attend. According to Tohti's lawyer, Liu Xiaoyuan, the blogger's mother and brother visited him in jail on October 15, 2015. Tohti said he would appeal the case again, the lawyer told Radio Free Asia.

Seven of his students-Perhat Halmurat, Shohret Nijat, Luo Yuwei, Mutellip Imin, Abduqeyum Ablimit, Atikem Rozi and Akbar Imin-were charged with being involved with Uighurbiz during a secret trial held in November 2014, according to Tohti's lawyer Li Fangping. Many were administrators for the site, according to state media. According to the political prisoner database of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, an organization set up by Congress to monitor human rights and laws in China, Rozi and Mutellip Imin wrote for the site. Imin, who is from Xinjiang and enrolled at Istanbul University in Turkey, has a blog, too. He was arrested when he tried to leave China.

According to The New York Times, three of the students made televised confessions on the state-run China Central Television in September, saying they worked for the site. Halmurat claimed to have written an article, Nijat claimed to have taken part in editorial policy decisions, and Luo, from the Yi minority, claimed to have done design work.

The seven students were sentenced to three to eight years in prison, according to the Global Times, a government-affiliated website. The length of sentence for each student was unclear and details of where they are being held have not been disclosed.

Tohti was being held at the Xinjiang No. 1 Prison in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, according to Radio Free Asia. Tohti's family has been allowed to visit him only three times since September 2014.

Tohti is a member of the Uyghur PEN Center and an honorary member of the Independent Chinese PEN Center and PEN America.

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