(TibetanReview.net, Jan31, 2015) – China’s much-publicised promises of judicial transparency and rule of law continues to be illusive in Tibet where reports suggest that a Buddhism monk was jailed in January this year for ten years after being held and remaining disappeared for nearly a year. Tsewang, aged about 27, was held in Sog (Chinese: Suo) County of Nagchu Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region, on Mar 17, 2014 for no known reasons, reported Radio Free Asia (Washington) Jan 9.
The exact date of his trial and sentence and the ground for his conviction still remain unknown even to his family.
Tsewang was held with three fellow-monks – Tsangyang Gyatso, Atse, and Gyaltsen – of Drilda Monastery in Sog County. This followed the detention few days earlier of at least nine monks and laypeople from the same area suspected by the authorities to be behind a campaign against Chinese rule, including over independence slogans seen painted on boulders by an iron bridge in Trido Township near Sog County.
While Gyatso, chant leader of Drilda Monastery, was jailed for 12 years sometime around Oct 1, 2014, the fate of Atse and Gyaltsen still remain unknown.