The sentencing of Chinese scholar Ilham Tohti to life imprisonment is a heinous injustice and incompatible with the rule of law on which China prides itself. Tohti, one of the best known Uighur scholars in the country, has spent a lifetime trying to build bridges between the alienated Muslim Uighur minority and the Han Chinese in order to end an escalating cycle of violence between the two communities.

In one of the harshest punishments meted out to a non-violent dissident, the court also ordered the confiscation of all of Tohti’s possessions, leaving his wife and two children with no visible means of support.

Tohti’s imprisonment is likely to lead to further militancy among a minority of Uighurs, including revenge attacks against Han Chinese. China’s largest Muslim minority, the Uighurs have long advocated either independence from China or greater autonomy within China.