By Tenzin Monlam
DHARAMSHALA, July 27: Chinese authorities have secretly released a Tibetan political prisoner who had already spent 21 years in jail and was rearrested on May 14 in Sog County.
According to Voice Of Tibet, Lodoe Gyatso’s well-wishers were not allowed to meet or receive him upon his arrival at his hometown on July 19. His health is also said to be in a deteriorated state due to the extreme torture in prison, according to source.
Chinese authorities had arrested the 55-year old political prisoner for the second time, around midnight of May 14 on unknown charges.
Initially, he was 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 calling for ‘Tibet’s independence, the long life of the Dalai Lama and the unity of the Tibetan people.’ He also wrote Tibetan texts on 300 pamphlets, which he distributed during his protest in the prison.
In retaliation, the authorities subjected him 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.
Lodoe was then released on May 2, 2013 in poor health because of the injuries sustained from torture during his imprisonment.
