By Kalsang Rinchen
Dharamsala, April 12 – A Chinese court in Ngaba County in the traditional Tibetan province of Amdo has sentenced three Tibetans to varying prison terms on Friday (April 9, 2010), according to a press release issued by the Kirti monastery’s Emergency Coordination Committee here.
Ngaba County Intermediate People’s Court has passed verdicts on Choedar, 34, and Gotsang Jamyang Phuntsok, 36, both monks of Ngaba Kirti monastery and Khomatsang Jigmey, 40 year old former monk of Ngaba Kirti monastery.
Choedar of Joshertsang household from Jolep village in Ngaba County has been sentenced to 13 years in jail. Before his arrest on August 25, 2009 from the house of Dhonkho Gyakpatsang family for his alleged role in leading anti government protests in the area in 2008 he had gone into hiding for almost a year. The local government had announced a reward of around 300000 Chinese Yuan for information about him. Dhonkho Gyakpatsang family’s son and his wife were taken into judicial custody for providing shelter to him. Dhonkho’s wife Sodol was released shortly after that but Dhonko has not been released until now. Dhonkho had been jailed for five years on charges of pasting posters with anti government contents in the streets of Ngaba County during Chinese government’s patriotic reeducation campaign in 1998.
Khomatsang Jigmey, 40, received a prison term of seven years for “contact with outside separatist forces” and “leaking state secrets” to outside forces. He was arrested on February 7, 2009. A former monk of Ngaba Kirti monastery, he was detained for almost a year without trial in 1992 for pasting posters with anti-government contents.
Gotsang Jamyang Phuntsok, better known as Jankho, 36, has been sentenced to 6 years in jail for alleged engagement in “separatist activities” and having links with “outside separatist forces.” Until the court’s verdict on April 9, his family had no clue about his whereabouts. Jankho was arrested on March 3, 2009 from his monastery quarter for sending out information about a fellow monk named Tabey who had set himself ablaze on Febraury 27, 2009.
