Nadine Osman

The US State Department has decried a purported life sentence given to a prominent Uyghur academic in China.

Rahile Dawut, 57, had lost her appeal against her original December 2018 conviction on grounds of “endangering state security,” according to the US-based Dui Hua Foundation.

Human rights activists have accused China of a mass detention campaign targeting the predominantly Muslim Uyghur ethnic group, as well as atrocities such as forced sterilisation and cultural repression, which have been labelled “genocide” by various countries, including the US.

“We condemn the reported life sentence handed down by the Government of the People´s Republic of China following secret court proceedings of Professor Rahile Dawut,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on September 29.

Dawut had been a professor at Xinjiang University College of Humanities as well as a leading cultural anthropologist and ethnographer of Uyghur folklore.

She had been detained since December 2017 in Xinjiang, where Beijing has been accused of rights abuses against the mainly Muslim Uyghur ethnic minority, which it denies.

Dawut is just one in a list of more than 300 Uyghur intellectuals who have been detained, arrested, or imprisoned by Chinese authorities since 2016, according to the Dui Hua Foundation.

In a statement through the Foundation, Dawat’s daughter, Akeda Pulati, called on the Chinese government to free her mother.

“I worry about my mother every single day. The thought of my innocent mother having to spend her life in prison brings me unbearable pain. China, show your mercy and release my innocent mother,” she said.

She worked with many prominent Western institutions, such as the universities of Harvard and Cambridge, which have called for her release.

Some Xinjiang experts said the mass internment of Uyghurs peaked in 2018, but that abuses have continued, with forced labour becoming more prominent.