Tibetan Monk Missing in Custody Has Been Sentenced

A Tibetan monk who vanished after being taken into custody last year by police in Sichuan’s Ngaba prefecture was sentenced this week to a three-year prison term, Tibetan sources say.

Jamyang Lodroe, 36, was sentenced on July 4, 2017, by a court in Ngaba’s Trochu (in Chinese, Heishui) county, a relative living in Paris told RFA’s Tibetan Service.

“Authorities allowed his family to visit with him for an hour, but did not say where he will be sent to serve his sentence,” the source named Choephel said, citing contacts in Ngaba.

Lodroe, a monk at Ngaba’s Tsinang monastery, was detained without explanation on the evening of May 15, 2016, in front of the Barkham (Ma’erkang) City People’s Hospital, sources told RFA in earlier reports.

“He was held incommunicado since then, and his family and other relatives asked the relevant police departments many times where he was being held, but always without success,” Choephel said.

Lodroe had written articles on sensitive political subjects and was accused of sending news about protests to contacts outside his area, Choephel said, adding that this may be why he has now been imprisoned.

Authorities in Tibetan-populated areas of China closely monitor Tibetans’ use of mobile phones and social media and harshly punish the spread of news or images of self-immolations and other protests challenging Chinese rule, sources say.

Reported by Sonam Lhamo for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Dorjee Damdul. Written in English by Richard Finney.