DHARAMSHALA: Jigme Gyatso, a Tibetan monk who was arrested four times for his strong resistance against the repressive policies of the Chinese government, has been sentenced to five years imprisonment by a Chinese court in Gansu Province.
Jigme Gyatso came into prominence and hailed as a hero by the Tibetan community after he testified in a 2009 video of his brutal treatment by the Chinese authorities was widely circulated on the Internet.
“It was not immediately clear where Gyatso is being imprisoned. His relatives had been kept in the dark about his whereabouts during his detention,” RFA reported. His friends had expressed concern about his health during his detention as he was believed to be ill and not receiving medical treatment.
He has been arrested four times since 2006 for engaging in alleged secessionist activities.
The Chinese authorities first detained Gyatso in 2006 following his return to Labrang after attending a religious ceremony conducted by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in India.
In 2008, when unprecedented protest broke against the Chinese rule, he was arrested, severely beaten in police custody and released after a year without being formally charged.
He was again arrested in 2010 and detained for six months in a hotel to undergo political “re-education” before he was released, again without charge.
He was last arrested in 2011 for allegedly engaging in splittist activities.
Labrang region is the home to Labrang Tashikhyil monastery, one of the six great monasteries of the Gelug School of Tibetan Buddhism and home to largest number of monks outside the Tibet Autonomous Region.
Monks of Labrang monasteries rose up against the Chinese government’s repressive policies as protest from Lhasa spread to other Tibetan areas in 2008.
As self-immolation protest against the Chinese rule erupted in 2009, around 6 Tibetans have set themselves on fire in Labrang. The self-immolators have called for freedom for Tibetans and the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to his homeland.