Beijing, Dec 9 (IANS/EFE): Seven students of Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti, who is serving a life sentence in China for separatism, have been sentenced to between three and eight years in prison for the same offence, Tohti's attorney Li Fangping told Efe news agency Tuesday.

The seven men, all students of Tohti's at Beijing's Minzu University, were accused of belonging to a criminal group led by their professor that incites separatism and seeks the independence of Xinjiang province from the rest of China.

According to Tohti's other attorney, Liu Xiaoyuan, one of the students was sentenced to eight years in jail, and two of them to seven years, while the rest will serve between three and six years of prison time.

Both the trial and the sentencing were carried out in an opaque manner.

No Chinese human rights lawyer was able to access information on the trial, given the pressure from the authorities and the reluctance of the students' families to speak out for fear of reprisals.

In Xinjiang, where the majority of the inhabitants are Uyghur, confrontations have been on the rise in recent years.

In 2014, 200 people died in the region due to violence which Beijing attributes to separatist terrorist groups, while Uyghurs living in exile blame it on the repression and discrimination by Chinese authorities.

After a series of attacks this year, the authorities launched a campaign to reduce violence in Xinjiang, sentencing numerous groups of alleged terrorists, mostly ethnic Uyghurs, to death or life imprisonment.

Those sentenced include the intellectual Ilham Tohti, who was acting as a bridge between both ethnic groups to promote understanding.

His arrest, as well as Tuesday's seven arrests, drew the attention and strong criticism from the international community.

"With these statements, the authorities want to show that they are determined to suppress the rights of Uyghur activists and to strengthen repression and their control over them," a Chinese human rights investigator told Efe, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Both of Tohti's lawyers criticised the fact that the trial against the students and the professor were carried out separately, which, according to them, is a violation of the law and prejudicial for the accused.

Statements by the students affirming that Tohti preached separatism were apparently used against the professor during his trial, an argument the lawyer said was invalid for the appeal, which the court rejected.

Tohti argued that the students' statements were produced "under pressure and threats" from the authorities.