ARCHIVE – In Monday's image 4 February 2013, el profesor Ilham Tohti, a critic of the government's harsh repression against his ethnic minority Uyghur community, dialogue during an interviewat home in Beijing, China. European and American officials asked Chinese authorities on Friday 17 of January of 2014 to explain the reasons why the police detained Ilham Tohti at her home. Andy Wong / AP photo
By Por GILLIAN WONG
Associated Press
BEIJING, China — European and American officials asked Chinese authorities on Friday to explain why police detained a prominent professor who criticized the government's harsh crackdown on his ethnic minority Uyghur community..
Nearly 30 Police arrested Ilham Tohti on Wednesday, economics professor, at his home in Beijing and then confiscated computers, cell phones and even the manuscripts of his students' theses in a six-hour raid, his wife reported.
El Ministerio del Exterior de China indicó el jueves que Tohti había sido "detenido penalmente" on suspicion of an unspecified crime.
His arrest was the most serious in a series of recent actions by Chinese authorities in apparent retaliation against the professor., who is probably China's most famous critic of the ruling Communist Party's restrictive policies in Xinjiang, in western China.
China maintains strong control over the restive region, which has been rocked by a series of riots and attacks against police and other symbols of Chinese power in the last year. Medios oficiales reportaron a principios de este mes que el presidente Xi Jinping ha ordenado a las autoridades reenfocar sus esfuerzos por "mantener la estabilidad social" en Xinjiang.
At a briefing with reporters on Friday in Beijing, the ambassador of the European Union to China, Markus Ederer, urged the Chinese authorities to indicate the charges that Tohti could face and inform his relatives where he is being held..
The spokesperson for the North American State Department, Only Psaki, said in a statement that the United States was deeply concerned about reports that Tohti has been detained, and asked Chinese authorities to reveal its location.
El comunicado señala que la detención "parece ser parte de un alarmante patrón de arrestos y detenciones de abogados de interés público, internet activists, journalists, líderes religiosos y otros que pacíficamente han desafiado las políticas y acciones del gobierno de China".
Beijing police did not respond to repeated requests for comment.. Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Hong her, indicó en una conferencia el jueves que Ilham Tohti "es sospechoso de violar la ley y cometer un delito" and that the police have placed him under arrest.
