Four Tibetans in Kardze County, Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province, have been sentenced to varying prison terms for taking part in protests last spring, according to a Tibetan rights group.
Two are nuns from the Pangri Na convent in Garze County: Soe Lhatson, 35, sentenced to 10 years in prison, and Bhumo, 36, sentenced to 9 years, Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy, based in Dharamsala, the seat of the Tibetan Government-exile in northern India, said.
The centre said they were among a group of 55 nuns detained after a peaceful protest on May 14 outside government headquarters in Kardze County.
The exact date of their court sentence was not known, the centre said. “The two are said to be held currently at a prison in an area called Trimon, about 140 Kms from Chengdu, the provincial city of Sichuan Province,” the group said.
Two other people were sentenced to three years each for taking part in a protest on March 18, also in Kardze.
Ngawang Tashi and Dorjee Tashi, both 18 years old from Jesungda Village, in Kardze County, were initially detained at Kardze County Public Security Bureau (PSB) Detention Centre before being shifted to Drango County PSB Detention Centre for few months before the court sentence, TCHRD said. The exact date of their court sentence and current place of detention is not known, it said.
The verdicts in the above cases were passed by the Kardze County Intermediate People’s Court, TCHRD said, citing sources as saying.
The Centre expressed concern over their safety and wellbeing, saying “torture and inhuman treatment of prisoners and detainees are regular feature in the Chinese administered prisons and detention centers in Tibet”.
