13 August 2005
China jails three Tibetans for Dalai Lama pictures and recordings
Radio Free Asia reported that three men who tried to carry pictures and audio tapes of the Dalai Lama into Tibet were sentenced by a Chinese court to jail terms of up to four years. The three Tibetans were arrested by Chinese police following a border crossing from Nepal on 28 June 2001. They were handed over to national security officers in Shigatse on 4 July 2001, where they were interrogated and submitted to physical and verbal abuse. They were later charged at Intermediate People's Court in Shigatse for attempting to "split the country" and illegal entry into China. One of the three men, who recently arrived in exile in Nepal and reported this hitherto unknown case to Radio Free Asia, had served a two year sentence followed by two years deprivation of political rights. The two other men, one of whom is a monk, served four year jail sentences but were recently released from Tibet's notorious Drapchi Prison.