Acclaimed Uyghur Scholar Studying Folklore Sentenced To Life In Prison By Court in China

Acclaimed Uyghur scholar Rahile Dawut was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of endangering state security in 2018. Reports say Dawut appealed the conviction but her appeal was dismissed and the conviction was upheld.

Acclaimed Uyghur scholar Rahile Dawut was the founder of Xinjiang University’s Ethnic Minorities Folklore Research Center and a professor at the university. Further reports say the Uyghur scholar was internationally renowned for her studies of the culture and as a visiting scholar at Cambridge and the University of Pennsylvania.

However, according to May, in late 2017, the Uyghur scholar disappeared amid China’s repression of the largely Muslim ethnicity native to the Xinjiang region. In December 2018, during a secret trial, the Uyghur scholar was then convicted on charges of endangering state security. Reports say the Uyghur scholar appealed the conviction but it was later dismissed.

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Uyghur Scholar Sentenced To Life

According to Kang, for several years, Chinese authorities did not disclose the whereabouts of the Uyghur scholar nor the charges filed against her. Fortunately, the San Francisco-based Dui Hua Foundation, a human rights group that works on cases in China, discovered that the Uyghur scholar was sentenced to life in prison.

On September 22, however, during a regular press briefing, Spokesperson Mao Ning of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs maintained that there is no information on the Uyghur scholar’s case. Reports say the Uyghur scholar was one of more than 400 intellectuals detained in Xinjiang after the government’s attempt to erase the Uyghur culture.

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