-By Sangyal Kunchok and Lhuboom Tashi for RFA Tibetan, 23 March 2023
As she had done several times before, Gonpo Kyi went to the prison in Tibet’s capital of Lhasa on Monday to appeal for the release of her brother, former businessman Dorjee Tashi, who is serving a life sentence.
When police told Kyi to stop, she refused. So they grabbed her and detained her overnight, during which she was beaten and tortured, two Tibetans with knowledge of the situation said.
Kyi was released on Tuesday, and her other brother, Dorjee Tseten – who has also repeatedly campaigned on his brother’s behalf – took her to the hospital for treatment of injuries she suffered, one of the sources said.
“While Gonpo Kyi was pleading with the Chinese authorities to allow relatives to visit her jailed brother, she was tortured and then arrested by the police,” said a Tibetan inside Tibet, who declined to be identified for safety reasons. “She was detained for a night and released the day after.”
Radio Free Asia obtained a video in which Kyi, also known as Gontey, describes the beatings and shows bruises on her shoulders and upper arms.
In the video, she displays a legal document about a Chinese business couple who were imprisoned for 15 years on fraud charges around the same time Tashi was arrested.
“But the Chinese couple has been released after 10 years,” Kyi says. “And it is not fair that my brother, Dorjee Tashi, has still not released though he has already paid off all the money that he was allegedly charged with [stealing] through loan fraud.”
“This is illegal and discrimination against the Tibetans,” she said, though she did not explain how she obtained the document about the Chinese couple. Continue reading