Jewher Ilham, Daughter of Imprisoned Uyghur Economist, Commits to Raising Awareness of Chinese Oppression

Tokyo, Mar 6 (NationPress) Jewher Ilham, the daughter of imprisoned Uyghur economist Ilham Tohti, has pledged to raise global awareness about the oppression faced by Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region of China.

Now 30 years old and living in the United States, she was separated from her father in February 2013 at the Beijing airport, where Chinese officials detained him.

Since that day, she has not been able to return to China and informed Japan's Kyodo News that her father's whereabouts remain unknown.

Tohti, a former academic at Minzu University of China, was prevented from leaving China for a visiting scholar position at a university in the United States. He was subsequently arrested and sentenced in September 2014 after a secret trial. Reports indicate he received a life sentence on charges related to separatism.

This sentence, confirmed in November 2014, sparked outrage from human rights organizations and Western governments. According to Amnesty International, the charges against Ilham Tohti stem from his writings and teachings that highlighted the systematic discrimination experienced by Uyghurs in Xinjiang.

Amnesty stated, “Tohti's life sentence, given in September 2014 after a trial devoid of fairness and transparency, is a gross violation of his rights. Reports indicate that during his incarceration, Tohti has faced torture and mistreatment, including shackling, prolonged solitary confinement, and denial of essential medical care and nutrition, along with political indoctrination.”

In 2024, Human Rights Watch reported that the Chinese government continued committing crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang.

The organization remarked, “Over the years, the Chinese government has ignored calls to cease its severe repression in Xinjiang, which encompasses mass arbitrary detention, torture, enforced disappearances, extensive surveillance, cultural and religious persecution, family separations, forced labor, sexual violence, and violations of reproductive rights.”

Earlier in 2023, 51 United Nations member countries released a joint statement condemning the Chinese government for its crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Turkic groups, urging Beijing to halt its systematic human rights violations in Xinjiang.

In 2022, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) reported that the scale of arbitrary detentions against Uyghurs and others, in the context of “restrictions and deprivation of fundamental rights, both individually and collectively, may amount to international crimes, specifically crimes against humanity.”