The President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, announced on 24 October in Strasbourg that the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought had been awarded this year to the Uighur intellectual Ilham Tohti, sentenced to life imprisonment in China for "separatism".
"I am pleased to announce that the European Parliament has chosen Ilham Tohti as the winner of the 2019 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. Mr Tohti has devoted his life to advocating for the rights of the Uighur minority in China. Although moderate and advocating reconciliation, he was sentenced to life imprisonment following a mock trial in 2014. By awarding him this prize, we strongly urge the Chinese government to release Mr Tohti and we call for respect for the Uighur minority in China", said the President of the European Parliament.
A former professor of economics at a Beijing university, Ilham Tohti, 49, was sentenced in 2014 by the Chinese courts to life imprisonment for "separatism" in Xinjiang, his home province.
Under close supervision in the early 2010's, Ilham Tohti continued to run a Xinjiang news website in Chinese and Uighur where he sought to promote dialogue and analysis of Xinjiang's political and social problems, according to a portrait drawn up by Le Monde in October, when the professor received the Vaclav Havel Prize.
The other candidates were The Restorers, a group of five Kenyan students who developed i-Cut, an application to help girls cope with female genital mutilation, and Brazilian activists. Ilham Tohti's name had been proposed by the Renew Europe group. The official award ceremony for the 2019 Sakharov Prize will be held in Strasbourg on 18 December. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)