Tibetan activist freed after 25 years of prison and torture
Dharamsala (AsiaNews / RFA) - After 25 years in prison, the Chinese authorities released a Tibetan activist, arrested and sentenced to death for taking part in the anti-Chinese protests in Lhasa in 1988. Dharamsala, the seat of the Tibetan government in exile, only recently published the news of the release of Lobsang Tenzin, even if the political prisoner was freed at the end of 2012 because of serious health conditions, due to torture and abuse suffered in prison.
Penpa Tsemonling, a former cellmate of Tenzin, told
Radio Free Asia (RFA):
"His release was kept secret
on purpose, to avoid that the Chinese authorities sending him back
to prison once his condition improved." The man would have finished serving his sentence in April last
year.
Because of the torture and abuse he
suffered in these 25 years, Tenzin
has serious liver damage, developed diabetes and is almost completely blind. The activist was one of five Tibetans sentenced for the
death of a Chinese police officer, who was beaten and thrown out of the window after being discovered taking pictures of the
protesters in Lhasa. Tenzin's
role in the killing has never been clarified, despite this, the court first sentenced him to death, and then commuted his sentence
to life imprisonment.
The release of Tenzin follows that of another Tibetan activist, the Monk Jigme Gyatso, 52, freed
after
17 years in prison.
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18/02/2020 10:04
