Ilham Tohti wins 2019 Sakharov human rights prize of European Union (EU)

Ilham Tohti, an academic jailed for separatism in China, has been awarded the European Parliament’s top human rights prize ‘Sakharov’  in recognition for drawing attention to ethnic tensions in Xinjiang. Tohti is from the Uighur minority & has been a fierce critic of China’s treatment of the Uighur people. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2014 on separatism charges. The move will pointedly rebuked China’s treatment of the Muslim ethnic minority and may draw a reprisal from Beijing.