DHARAMSHALA, November 4: A Tibetan monk from the Nyatso Zilkar Monastery has been sentenced to a year in prison by a Chinese court for unknown charges a month after his arrest.
Tenzin Sherab, 28, was detained on October 1 at Zatoe in Tridu region of Kyigudo, eastern Tibet.
Lobsang Sangyal, a monk in south India, told Phayul the sentence was handed down in the absence of the monk’s family members and relatives.
“Chinese authorities informed the family members about the sentencing over phone and declined from giving the exact charges for which he was sentenced,” Sangyal said.
“Furthermore, local security officials have told Tenzin Sherab’s family members that they are not allowed to visit the monk for three months from the date of sentencing.”
It is widely believed that Sherab was arrested in connection with the peaceful protests that engulfed the region on February 8, earlier this year.
Thousands of Tibetans in Tridu had taken part in a peaceful protest coinciding with the global solidarity vigil called by the exile based Central Tibetan Administration.
Around 400 monks from the Zilkar monastery had led a protest march to Zatoe town with banners, written in blue and red ink, symbolic of the two protector deities of Tibet, calling for the Dalai Lama’s return, release of Tibetan political prisoners including the XIth Panchen Lama and respect for Tibetan lives.
Although no arrests were made during the protest, on February 16, three Zatoe monks – Sonam Gyewa, Lobsang Samten, and Lobsang Nyima were arrested and later sentenced by an Intermediate People’s Court in Siling at a secret trial without the presence of the monks’ family members.
In another official raid at the Monastery this September, dozens of monks were severely beaten by Chinese security personnel and five monks were arbitrarily detained.
The whereabouts of the arrested monks, Sonam Sherab, Lobsang Jinpa, Tsultrim Kalsang, Ngawang Monlam, and Sonam Yignyen, are still not known.
