By Tenzin Monlam
DHARAMSHALA, May 31: A former Tibetan political prisoner who was released in 2013 after 21 years in Chinese prisons has been arrested again in Sog County on May 14, according to Ngawang Tharpa, an exile Tibetan from the region.
Chinese authorities arrested Lodoe Gyatso, now 55, around midnight of May 14. The reason for Lodoe Gyatso’s arrest is still unknown, as his family members remain worried about his condition and whereabouts.
Lodoe was released on May 2, 2013 in poor health condition owing to the injuries sustained from excessive torture during his prison time in Chushul Prison, one of the most notorious prisons run by Chinese government in Tibet.
Gyatso was originally sentenced to 15 years in prison on murder charges in 1991. On March 4, 1995, while serving his sentence in Drapchi Prison, he carried out a protest against the Chinese government calling for “Tibet’s independence, the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the unity of the Tibetan people.” He wrote Tibetan texts on 300 pamphlets which he distributed during his protest in the prison.
The prison authorities reacted by subjecting Lodoe to long hours of torture for over a month and pushed the courts for his death sentence which was passed within three days. However, repeated appeals from various international rights groups led to the extension of his death sentence by six years with three years’ deprivation of political rights thus serving a total of 21 years in prison.
Gyatso was formerly a member of Sog County cultural troupe and two time champion of traditional weight lifting from the region.
