A jailed Chinese scholar defending the country's mostly-Muslim Uighur minority won a leading human rights honour on Tuesday, a move swiftly condemned by Beijing. Ilham Tohti, serving a life sentence for "separatism", was awarded the Martin Ennals prize for his criticism of Beijing's policies towards Uighurs in western China's Xinjiang region. The award foundation lauded his decades-long effort "to foster dialogue and understanding between Uighurs and Han Chinese" and his rejection of extremist rhetoric.