Tibetan monk sentenced to three years in prison
DHARAMSALA, 6 Sept: A Tibetan monk from Kirti monastery in restive Ngaba county in the traditional Tibetan province of Amdo has been sentenced to three-years imprisonment by the Chinese authorities after a more than a year of incommunicado detention.
“Chinese authorities on 3 September handed down a three-year prison sentence to Lobsang Dorje from Kirti monastery,” said Kanyak Tsering and Lobsang Yeshi, the spokespersons of the exile seat of Kirti monastery here in Dharamsala said citing inputs from sources in the region.
The last we heard from the spokespersons, Lobsang Dorje was hastily arrested by the Chinese authorities late into the month of July last year from his monastic quarter.
While there were no information and details about him post his detention, it is being held that he was detained for keeping contact with Tibetans outside Tibet.
However, it still remains unknown on what charges he was sentenced to 3-years in jail.
Lobsang Dorje hails from Chukle Gongma pastoral community in the Ngaba region. He was ordained as a monk at the Kirti Monastery at a very young age.
He has previously served two years’ sentence following his arrest in 2008 during the Pan-Tibet uprising.
While Ngaba region is the hotbed of self-immolation protests inside Tibet and political dissent against China’s repressive and illegal rule in Tibet, The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD), a Dharamsala-based rights group maintained that Lobsang Dorjee’ unjustly imprisoned as a fodder to china’s ongoing drive of systematic persecution of Tibetans for their political and religious beliefs.
TCHRD further demanded the immediate release of the monk and all other Tibetan political prisoners calling out on the Chinese government to” respect and guarantee the basic human rights enshrined in the national law and the international human rights law”.
