A court in China sentences a famed Uyghur scholar to life in prison, foundation says

BEIJING – A distinguished Uyghur scholar specializing in the learn about of her folks’s folklore and traditions has been sentenced to life in jail, in accordance to a U.S.-based foundation that works on human rights circumstances in China.

Rahile Dawut used to be convicted on fees of endangering state safety in December 2018 in a secret trial, the San Francisco-based Dui Hua Foundation mentioned in a commentary Thursday. Dawut appealed however her conviction used to be upheld, the foundation mentioned.

“The sentencing of Professor Rahile Dawut to life in prison is a cruel tragedy, a great loss for the Uyghur people, and for all who treasure academic freedom,” John Kamm, government director of the Dui Hua Foundation, mentioned in a commentary.

Dawut used to be a professor at Xinjiang University and founding father of the college’s Ethnic Minorities Folklore Research Center. She disappeared in overdue 2017 amid a brutal government crackdown aimed at the Uyghurs, a Turkic, predominately Muslim ethnicity local to China’s northwest Xinjiang region.

For years, her precise standing used to be unknown, as Chinese government didn’t divulge her whereabouts or the character of the fees in opposition to her. That modified this month when the Dui Hua Foundation noticed a Chinese govt record disclosing that Dawut used to be sentenced to life in jail.

Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Mao Ning mentioned she had “no information” on Dawut’s case at a common press briefing Friday, however added that China would “handle cases in accordance with the law.”

Dawut used to be the world over famend for her paintings finding out sacred Islamic websites and Uyghur cultural practices in Xinjiang and throughout Central Asia, authoring many articles and books and lecturing as a visiting scholar in another country, together with at Cambridge and the University of Pennsylvania.

She is one among over 400 distinguished teachers, writers, performers and artists detained in Xinjiang, advocacy teams say. Critics say the government has targeted intellectuals as a method to dilute, and even erase, Uyghur tradition, language and identification.

“Most prominent Uyghur intellectuals have been arrested. They’ve been indiscriminate,” mentioned Joshua Freeman, an Academia Sinica researcher who used to paintings as a translator for Dawut. “I don’t think it is anything about her work that got her in trouble. I think what got her in trouble was that she was born a Uyghur.”

News of her life sentence surprised Freeman and different teachers in Uyghur research, as Dawut did not interact in actions opposing the Chinese govt. Dawut used to be a member of the Chinese Communist Party and won grants and awards from the Chinese Ministry of Culture prior to her arrest.

Dawut’s daughter, Akeda Pulati, mentioned she used to be shocked by way of the news and known as at the Chinese government to liberate her mom.

“I know the Chinese government is torturing and persecuting the Uyghurs. But I didn’t expect them to be that cruel, to give my innocent mother a life sentence,” Pulati mentioned. “Their cruelty is beyond my imagination.”

Pulati known as Dawut “the hardest working person I’ve ever met,” pronouncing that since she used to be a kid, she have been impressed by way of her mom’s willpower to her profession.

“She’s a very simple person — all she wants in her life is just to find enjoyment in her work and her career and do something good for society, for the people around her,” Pulati mentioned.

Mukaddas Mijit, a Uyghur ethnomusicologist founded in Brussels, mentioned Dawut have been crucial consultant to her and plenty of different students early in their careers. Dawut used to be a vital bridge between international academia and Uyghur tradition, Mijit mentioned, mentoring a technology of distinguished Uyghur students the world over.

“She was a guardian of Uyghur identity, and that’s something the Chinese government is after,” Mijit mentioned. “They want to erase everything, and they want Uyghurs to forget how beautiful and colorful a culture they had.”