By Phuntsok Yangchen
DHARAMSHALA, September 9: A Chinese court in Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu Province, has sentenced Jigme Guri, also known as Labrang Jigme, to five years imprisonment on charges of “inciting splitism” on September 5.
Jigme Guri, an outspoken and respected monk from the Labrang monastery, was arrested on August 20, 2011 and since then he remained in detention.
However, whereabouts of Guri still remain unknown even to his family members.
Guri was accused of taking part in a protest by fellow monks at Labrang monastery in 2008 and was detained in March 2008 for over a month. He was subjected to severe torture in detention that he had to be hospitalized.
Upon his release, he recorded a powerful video statement about his arrest, torture and the wider crackdown in Tibet. The video was uploaded to You Tube. On returning to his monastery after hiding for several weeks, Jigme was again detained and held for six months without charge.
In his video, Jigme states: “I, as a witness to truth, am telling through the media the story of Tibetans killed, who have suffered torture in prisons, and about the countless people who have been forced to flee to the mountains and who are too afraid to return to their own homes, so that the media can truthfully report on these situations.”
Guri was detained in 2006 for over four months after his return from attending Kalachakra at Amravati, India.
