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Groups Call For Release Of Chinese Dissident With IU Ties

Calls for China to reconsider the life sentence of the Chinese dissident Ilham Tohti, who was planning to be a visiting scholar at Indiana University before being detained, are increasing.

Ilham was in the airport, on his way to Indiana University last year, when the Chinese government detained him and his daughter.

His daughter, Jewher Ilham, was later released, and she came to Bloomington, where she is now an IU student.

In January of this year, Ilham was rearrested and charged with several crimes, which could have given him the death penalty, and, on Tuesday, a court sentenced Ilham to life in prison after convicting him on charges of separatism.

Ilham is Uyghur, an ethnic minority in China, and has been critical of the government's treatment of the Uyghur people, but Ilham's colleagues say he has not advocated for Uyghurs declaring their independence from China.

"All he's done is he's written things and he's spoken out," says Elliot Sperling, an associate professor of Central Eurasian Studies at IU and one of Ilham's friends. "Mind you he's never hurt anybody. He's never attacked anybody. All of these things are thought crimes."

Sperling, who was also key in getting Ilham the position as a visiting scholar at IU, adds that the sentence is not the end of Ilham's struggle with the government, but the beginning.

"This is not insignificant," he says. "Another one of the dissidents in China said it's probably the most important political trial China has had in years. Another dissident wrote the Chinese authorities have created an Uyghur Nelson Mandela by what they have done to him. Indeed, the story is global now."

Since the court ruling, the White House and the State Department have issued statements condemning Ilham's sentence.

This morning, IU officials also issued this statement urging the Chinese government to reconsider the conviction.

Indiana University joins the United States government, as well as those of several European Union countries, and human rights organizations worldwide in expressing its deep concern over the conviction and life sentence handed down to prominent Uighur scholar Ilham Tohti by the Chinese government this week. Likewise, the university echoes those countries and organizations in urging the Chinese government to reconsider Tohti's conviction.

Tohti, who was arrested in January, is a globally respected scholar who has worked tirelessly and peacefully to reduce tensions among ethnic groups within China, specifically Uighers and Han Chinese. Tohti had been detained in February 2013 on his way to Indiana University's Bloomington campus, where he had been invited as a visiting scholar in conjunction with a program by the Institute of International Education. IU strongly supports work that enables international exchanges among scholars, which promote goodwill and mutual understanding among nations.

Additionally, the university continues to be concerned that some IU faculty members are having difficulties traveling to China for the purposes of research exchange with academic colleagues there. IU has a long history of engagement with a number of outstanding universities in China, and the ability of scholars to travel freely between the two countries is mutually beneficial."



Sperling says these types of statements, along with other international support, have made a difference in similar human rights cases, and he is pleased IU is speaking out.

But Sperling is also critical of Indiana University's delay in issuing a statement supporting Ilham. He says university officials told him in January when Ilham was arrested that they would not issue a statement of concern.

"We are the people that invited him, and to basically take that attitude was absolutely abysmal," Sperling says, adding that he understands the university has a financial stake in its relationship with China but that not speaking out goes against the university's mission as a liberal institution.

An Indiana University spokesman said the situation was complex but the university stands by its statement expressing concern over Ilham's situation.

Ilham and his lawyers plan to appeal his ruling.

Sperling says he does not expect it to be overturned unless international pressure prevails.

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