MCLC: Ilham Tohti subject to prisoner abuse

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: pjmooney <pjmooney at me.com>
Subject: Ilham Tohti subject to prisoner abuse
***********************************************************

Source: Pen American Center:
http://www.pen.org/press-release/2014/06/26/writer-ilham-tohti-subjected-pr
isoner-abuse-says-pen

As many of you and your colleagues have reported this morning, Ilham Tohti
was visited by his lawyer today and reported long periods of shackling and
food deprivation. These conditions are in direct violation of China's
commitment to the UN Convention Against Torture. PEN's Sarah Hoffman
notes, "To be denied food for ten days is pushing the body to its
outermost limits. A visit from his lawyer—which is permitted under Chinese
law—is no consolation for Tohti's five months of ill treatment in
violation of China’s international obligations. PEN calls on President Xi
Jinping to stop exploiting China’s security laws and its opaque pre-trial
detention system to silence and break those writers whose views they
disfavor.” The full press release from PEN American Center follows.

Best,

Sarah Edkins
Communications Manager

PEN American Center
PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
June 26, 2014
 

Contact
Sarah Hoffman, Freedom to Write Coordinator: sarah at pen.org, t.
212-334-1660 x 111, m. 201-874-9849
Sarah Edkins, Communications Manager: sedkins at pen.org, t. 212-334-1660 x
116, m. 617-947-6512

Writer Ilham Tohti Subjected to Prisoner Abuse, Says PEN
Literary Human Rights Organization Calls on China to Uphold Obligations
Under International Law

NEW YORK—PEN American Center learned this morning that imprisoned Uyghur
writer Ilham Tohti has faced long periods of food deprivation and
restraint by shackling during his detention in China, in violation of
China’s international obligations regarding the treatment of prisoners
under Article 16 of the UN Convention Against Torture, which bars acts of
cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, including
deprivation of food.
Tohti was finally given access to his lawyer, Li Fangping, on Thursday at
a detention center in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.  This
initial meeting comes more than five months after Tohti’s initial arrest,
during which time he has been held nearly 2,000 miles from his home in
Beijing without any access to his family, his lawyer, or the outside world.

While Li reported Tohti’s health to be intact, PEN’s initial relief was
mitigated upon learning he had suffered ill treatment in prison, spending
20 straight days shackled by the ankle and another 10 days deprived of
food from March 1-10, presumably in retaliation for the March 1 knife
attack in Kunming blamed on Uyghur separatists. Tohti had also staged a
hunger strike in January to protest his prison conditions, and has lost a
considerable amount of weight since his incarceration.

“To be denied food for ten days is pushing the body to its outermost
limits,” said Sarah Hoffman, PEN Freedom to Write Coordinator and case
manager for Ilham Tohti.  “A visit from his lawyer—which is permitted
under Chinese law—is no consolation for Tohti's five months of ill
treatment in violation of China’s international obligations. PEN calls on
President Xi Jinping to stop exploiting China’s security laws and its
opaque pretrial detention system to silence and break those writers whose
views they disfavor.”

A member of Uyghur PEN, Ilham Tohti was arrested at his apartment in
Beijing on January 15, 2014, after speaking out about human rights
violations against the Uyghurs on his website, Uyghur Online. He was held
in secret for a month before his family received notification that Tohti
had been imprisoned on spurious charges of separatism. In May, PEN
American Center honored Tohti with its 2014 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom
to Write Award to recognize his sacrifice in the service of free
expression.

In his conversation Thursday with Li, Tohti reiterated his innocence,
saying that his actions intended to unite China’s ethnic groups and
maintaining that he had said nothing to support separatism.

###
Founded in 1922, PEN American Center is association of 3,500 American
writers working to bring down barriers to free expression worldwide.