Dr Gurumurthy Kalyanaram, Dean, Former and Former Professor NYIT and UT Dallas and Expert Witness

REPORTS ON China’s Prosecution of Uighur scholar IlhamTohti

Dr. Gurumurthy Kalyanaram - Dean and former NYIT and UT Dallas professor, and expert witness, Gurumurthy Kalyanaram reports on China’s Prosecution of Uighur scholar IlhamTohti. Gurumurthy Kalyanaram Lawsuit

China filed a criminal lawsuit against Uighur scholar IlhamTohti charging with separatism, a very serious crime in China.  After two days of trial, the Court in China has upheld the charge and has found against Tohti in lawsuit filed by the State.  And now Tohti faces life imprisonment.  Tohti’s case has received great attention from media, policy makers, human right activists, legal scholars and lay men and women.


Here is the background to Tohti’s case. Gurumurthy Kalyanaram NYIT

In China’s Xinjiang province, the Uighurs have been agitating for better quality of life More than 45 percent of Xinjiang’s population of 22 million are Uighur, a minority that speaks Turkic rather than Mandarin and a minority that practices Sunni Islam.  Tensions between the Uighurs and the Han Chinese population have resulted in some violence and death of civilians. Gurumurthy Kalyanaram Lawsuit

China’s response to the unrest has been to tighten security, promote economic development in the province, and encourage more Han Chinese to move there.  But the tensions and suspicions persist.  In recent months, the government has further tightened security measures in the face of mounting ethnic violence, much of it fueled by Uighur discontent.  Despite intensely restrictive security measures, the bloodshed has been escalating. More than 200 Uighurs and Han have died over the past year in small-scale clashes and killings.

Mr. Tohti, 44 who was an economics professor at Minzu University of China in Beijing was a critic of Chinese policies in the increasingly turbulent western region.  Mr. Tohti was one of the few scholars in China willing to advocate on behalf of the nation’s Uighur minority, though it appears that Tohti was not advocating a separate Uighur state.Tohti was seeking a reconciliation and a better deal for Uighurs. Gurumurthy Kalyanaram NYIT

Tohti’s advocacy, China’s response including the criminal lawsuit, and final legal and political adjudication is complicated and remains a study in dealing with dissent, discord, violence in a sovereign nation.