Seven students of Professor Ilham Tohti’s have reportedly been sentenced to three to eight years in prison in China on charges of separatism. They were arrested at the same time that Tohti was, and CCS is concerned that some of the students were coerced into testifying against Professor Tohti in order to receive lighter sentences.
President Xi Jinping
The State Council General Office
2 Fuyoujie, Xichengqu
Beijingshi 100017
People’s Republic of China December 29, 2014
Your ExcellencyWe write to you now in support of Professor Ilham Tohti’s students.
We are gravely concerned regarding reports on December 8, 2014 that a Chinese criminal court sentenced seven of Professor Ilham Tohti’s students to three to eight years in prison. They were convicted on charges of separatism. The students were arrested in January 2014 along with Professor Tohti, and were reportedly held incommunicado for approximately eight months.
The students were not heard from until Professor Tohti’s two-day trial on September 16-17, 2014. Three of the students reportedly recorded statements, taken in jail where they were detained, incriminating Professor Tohti. In the statements, the students claimed that, through his now defunct website Uighur Online, Professor Tohti had sought to stir ethnic tensions and build anti-government sentiment, and that he had threatened one student with reprisals if the student did not continue doing design work for the website. We are concerned that the students’ statements are the product of coercion, seeing that reports indicate that the three students who testified against Professor Tohti received shorter sentences. The statements also contradict Professor Tohti’s steadfast denial under oath that he never sought to stir ethnic tensions and build anti-government sentiment, but rather that he tried to improve relations between Uighurs and other Chinese citizens.
We respectfully urge you to direct a reexamination of any proceedings for consistency with China’s obligations under domestic and international law. We are concerned that the detention and persecution of students, apparently as a result of nonviolent expression and association, punishes conduct that is expressly protected under international human rights instruments, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which China is a signatory. Moreover, the lengthy detention of the students, apparent coercion, and inconsistency with Professor Tohti’s sworn statements should be re-examined for whether due process under Chinese law was properly applied in these cases.
We urge you to investigate the apparent abuse of the students’ rights and to reverse the verdicts insofar at they appear to result from proceedings that lacked due process.
Sincerely yours,
Joel L. Lebowitz, Paul H. Plotz, Walter Reich,
Eugene M. Chudnovsky, Alexander GreerCo-Chairs, Committee of Concerned Scientists