By Choekyi Lhamo
DHARAMSHALA, Dec. 30: A Chinese court has sentenced a Tibetan named Lhundup Dorje from Machin in Golok Prefecture earlier this month on Dec. 14. The Tibetan nomad was sentenced to one-year prison term by the Golog Prefecture Intermediate Court on the charges of “inciting separatism” by posting and forwarding content deemed illegal by China.
The posts included picture and teachings of His Holiness the Dalai Lama on his Weibo and WeChat accounts on Feb. 5, 2019. The 30-year-old reportedly posted a New Year’s greeting video wishing the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), or the Tibetan government in exile on his Weibo account which was viewed 2,383 times. He also shared a 10-second video of the Tibetan spiritual leader with his circle of friends on WeChat.
Earlier this year on Mar. 11, Lhundup retweeted on Weibo a graphic that contained slogans calling for “Tibetan independence”. On May 3, he posted a message in praise of the Dalai Lama along with his photo as a child on Weibo. He was eventually arrested on July 3 and was held in detention for five months until his final sentence.
Lhundup has reportedly accepted his sentence and does not seek to appeal the sentence. His one-year prison term will be completed in July 2021 but he will still face one-year deprivation of political rights. Lhundup Dorjee was born on Aug. 7, 1990 in Gangri village, Machin county of Golog Prefecture in Tibet.
