The photo shows Karma Samdrup, second from right, being supported by two men to assist him in walking following his release on 18 November 2024. Photo: Tibet Times
Dharamshala: Tibetan environmentalist and philanthropist Karma Samdrup was released after serving a 15-year prison sentence with five years of deprivation of political rights effective immediately. Based on media reports from exile, the Chinese sentencing document indicated Karma Samdrup’s imprisonment would continue until 19 November, with some evidence suggesting he might have been released around 18 November 2024. Samdrup reportedly suffers from a back-related health condition that prevents him from walking independently without assistance following his release.
Karma Samdrup was arrested and forcibly taken away on 3 January 2010. After being detained for several months and subjected to unimaginable torture, interrogation, and coercion, on June 24 of that year, the Yanqi Hui Xinjiang (East Turkestan) District Court wrongfully sentenced him to 15 years in prison on charges of tomb excavation and cultural relic theft. Although these charges had originally been levelled against him in 1998 in East Turkestan and subsequently cleared, they were revived in this prosecution.
His arrest followed a visit to his imprisoned brothers, Rinchen Samdrup and Chime Namgyal, suggesting the legal action by the Chinese court was a calculated retribution for his attempts to secure their release. His brothers had earlier been detained in August 2009 after they exposed local officials’ illegal poaching of endangered wildlife, a move that was in accordance with the Chinese Constitution but that apparently provoked powerful interests seeking to suppress their environmental advocacy. Rinchen Samdrup was sentenced to 5 years in prison and was released on 8 August 2014, from a Lhasa prison. Chime Namgyal was sentenced to approximately one and a half years in a labor camp.
The case of Karma Samdrup testified to China’s controversial judicial practices as he accused police officers of systematic torture during his detention, challenging the government’s new regulations in May 2010 against the illegal collection of evidence. He disclosed during his trial on 22 June 2010 that Chinese officers repeatedly beat him, ordered fellow detainees to beat him, denied him sleep for days on end, and drugged him with a substance that caused his eyes and ears to bleed – all to extract a confession from him.
Currently around 56 years old, Karma Samdrup hails from Sompa Village in Gonjo County, Tibet. He and his brothers established the award-winning Achung Senge Namgyal Voluntary Environmental Protection Association.
-Filed by the UN, EU, and the Human Rights Desk, Tibet Advocacy Section, DIIR
