Tibetan Abbot Suspected of Link to Posters Sentenced to Three Years' Imprisonment

February 12, 2008

A court in Ganzi (Kardze) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (TAP), located in Sichuan province, sentenced the abbot (khenpo) of a Tibetan Buddhist monastery on July 16, 2007, to three years' imprisonment for endangering state security with "anti-government propaganda" and by "incitement of [the] masses," according to a February 2, 2008, Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) report.

A court in Ganzi (Kardze) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (TAP), located in Sichuan province, sentenced the abbot (khenpo) of a Tibetan Buddhist monastery on July 16, 2007, to three years' imprisonment for endangering state security with "anti-government propaganda" and by "incitement of [the] masses," according to a February 2, 2008, Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) report. The Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) 2007 Annual Report named Abbot Jinpa of Taglung Monastery, located in Chogtsang village, Seda (Serthar) county, as one of nine Tibetans whom Ganzi authorities detained between March and August 2006, according to news media and non-government organization reports issued between June and September 2006. Authorities did not accuse any of the Tibetans of violent activity, based on those reports and on information available in the CECC Political Prisoner Database (PPD).

Officials detained Jinpa on August 23, 2006, although security officials did not find any "incriminating materials" when they searched his living quarters, according to a September 7, 2006, Radio Free Asia (RFA) report. A source told RFA that Jinpa's detention could be linked to the appearance of pro-independence posters in the monastery a year earlier (in August 2005, according to the TCHRD press release). Ten vehicles carrying public security officials arrived at the monastery three days after Jinpa's detention and ransacked his room in a search for evidence, according to TCHRD. Authorities subsequently detained and questioned an unspecified number of unnamed persons in connection with the case, and released all of them after 10 to 15 days, TCHRD reported.

Information about the official charges against Jinpa and the evidence submitted before the court to support such charges is not available. If the court sentenced him in connection with the alleged appearance of pro-independence posters at the monastery, it is likely that the court convicted him under Article 103 of China's Criminal Law, which punishes inciting "splittism" ("splitting the State or undermining unity of the country"). After the court sentenced Jinpa, authorities transferred him to the Ganzi prefectural prison located in Xinduqiao (Minyag) township, Kangding (Dardo) county, which the TCHRD report referred to as Rangakha prison.

During the period 2002-2007, authorities in Ganzi TAP detained or imprisoned more Tibetans for peaceful political expression than any other prefectural-level area of Tibetan autonomy in China. Sixty of the 145 Tibetans known to have been detained or imprisoned during the period lived in Ganzi at the time of their detention, based on PPD information. Of the 60 Ganzi residents, 22 of them are known or believed to remain detained or imprisoned as of February 5, 2008.

For additional information about the political detention and imprisonment of Tibetans, see Section IV, Tibet: Special Focus for 2007, in the CECC 2007 Annual Report, and Section VIII, Tibet, in the CECC 2006 Annual Report.