A Chinese court has sentenced a university professor found guilty of "separatism" to life in prison, The New York Times reported. The Times said that the sentence is the most severe in recent years to a dissident. Ilham Tohti, the professor, teaches economics at Minzu University and is an advocate for ethnic Uighurs. In 2013, he had been expected to take a visiting position at Indiana University at Bloomington, but Chinese authorities blocked him from leaving the country.