Convicted Uygur teacher preached violence, separatism

The Uygur teacher convicted of separatism had urged his students to fight the Chinese government by any means and manipulated opinion polls to preach the independence of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, according to detailed court records obtained by Xinhua on Wednesday.

The records came one day after the Intermediate People's Court of Urumqi sentenced Ilham Tohti, a former teacher with Beijing's Minzu University of China, to life imprisonment.

Preaching violence

According to the records, more than 210 pieces of evidence were presented to the court, including witness testimony, the confession of the defendant and videos.

Video provided by prosecutors showed that Ilham Tohti called on his students to fight the Chinese government, which he labeled as "a devil to the Uygur people".

"Don't think that fighting with violence is terrorist activities," he told his students in the classroom.

The records showed that witnesses said Ilham Tohti was behind over 100 articles advocating separatism on the website of Uygur Online.

He organized the group to write, edit, translate and reprint articles seeking Xinjiang's separation from China.

"All of the important and sensitive articles were edited and approved by him," witnesses said.

According to the records, Ilham Tohti instigated others to write and reprint articles to distort the facts after a clash between terrorists and authorities in Kashgar's Bachu county, in which 15 community workers and police officers and six terrorists were killed on April 23, 2013.

On Oct. 28, a jeep crashed near Tian'anmen Square in downtown Beijing, killing five people and injuring 40 others. Police found gasoline, two knives and steel sticks as well as a flag with extremist content in the jeep. Police later identified the deadly crash as a violent terrorist attack.

After the crash, Ilham Tohti published articles on WeChat, a smartphone messaging platform, claiming that it was not a terrorist attack, the records said.

Ilham Tohti was prosecuted in late July for separatism. A public trial was held last week, with two lawyers for the defendant.

During the trial, Ilham Tohti denied all charges against him, arguing that he did not intend to split the country, and the articles he published merely represent an academic point of view.

The records also showed that the defendant's lawyers raised questions about whether Ilham Tohti should be tried in Urumqi.

Manipulating polls

Ilham Tohti manipulated opinion polls, published false data on the website of Uygur Online, and quoted the results in the classroom to preach the independence of Xinjiang, the records said.

The Uygur teacher claimed that he had distributed questionnaires and conducted interviews in Xinjiang, Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin in 2009 and 2010.

But a police investigation showed that he had never done research in those places, nor sent out a questionnaire online.

According to records, witnesses said Ilham Tohti fabricated the statistics. He stayed at home and did not have time to do research during the period.

A video revealed that Ilham Tohti told his students that 13 percent of people supported Xinjiang independence, while 87 percent advocated autonomy.

In court, he repeatedly said he totally supported autonomy and hoped Xinjiang could stay in China in the form of a federation.

Ilham Tohti and his lawyers did not provide any evidence that could prove he had conducted the opinion polls.

A string of his comments, articles and acts revealed his purpose to disunite the country and preach Xinjiang independence, said Jia Yu, head of Northwest University of Politics and Law.