Ilham Tohti

Ilham Tohti, an economics professor at Central University for Nationalities in Beijing, the founder of "Uighur Online"website, and a well-known critic of China's ethnic and religious policies in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR),was sentenced to life imprisonment on 23 September 2014. He was first taken away from his home in Beijing on 15January, and his wife received the arrest warrant on 25 February telling her that he was being charged with "separatism", acharge that has often been used against Uighurs who speak out against human rights violations. He is a prisoner ofconscience, who was held incommunicado for over five months, and according to his lawyers he was denied food for 10 daysand has had his feet shackled in detention.