Ilham Tohti

Ilham Tohti is a Uyghur economist serving a life sentence in China, on separatismrelated charges. He is known for his research on UyghurHan relations and is a vocal advocate for the implementation of regional autonomy laws in China, and was the host of Uyghur Online, a website that discusses Uyghur issues. Tohti was detained shortly after the July 2009 rmqi riots by the authorities because of his criticism of the Chinese governments policies toward Uyghurs in Xinjiang. He was later released and then jailed again in January 2014. For his work in the face of adversity he was awarded the PENBarbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award .

Tohti was born in Artush, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, on October 25, 1969, He graduated from the Northeast Normal University and the Economics School at what was then called the Central Nationalities University, now named Minzu University of China, in Beijing.

Source: Wikipedia