DHARAMSHALA, August 16: Two more Tibetans have been recently sentenced to varying jail terms by a Chinese court in eastern Tibet in connection with the major protests that engulfed the region in January earlier this year.

According to the Dharamshala based rights group Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, Logya, a 33-year-old layman from Me'uruma township in Ngaba and Tsering Dugkar, a Tibetan man from the same locality were sentenced to four years and two years, respectively.

Logya was apparently kept in a Chinese prison and tortured for months before his actual sentencing.

TCHRD in a release today said that Logya was sentenced to four years in prison by an Intermediate People’s Court in Barkham for carrying a portrait of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and leading a protest march on January 23 in Ngaba. He was soon arrested at Mema township in Machu County.

“After his arrest, Logya was detained for months in Barkham where he suffered beatings and torture at the hands of security officers,” the release said.

TCHRD noted that Logya was denied access to due process and legal representation and his family was not informed about the trial.

A father of three, Logya is currently serving his sentence at Mianyang prison.

Tsering Dugkar was also sentenced, along with Logya, to two years in prison for allegedly sheltering him when the latter was in hiding following the protest.

According to TCHRD, the same day the protests broke out in Ngaba, Chinese security personnel detained Logya’s sister Jampa, 38, and held her in custody for over a month during which she was subjected to “extreme brutality and torture.”

“Now living with her parents and her three children, she is yet to recover from the physical and psychological trauma she had undergone during her month-long detention,” the rights group said.

Coinciding with the Chinese new year on January 23, hundreds of Tibetans had participated in peaceful demonstration against Chinese rule in Serthar, Drango, and Ngaba regions. Chinese security personnel retaliated by firing indiscriminately at the unarmed demonstrators, killing and injuring scores of people.



Logya along with another Tibetan from the region Choepa, 24, had managed to evade arrest following the Ngaba protests.

On August 10, Choepa set himself on fire in his hometown. Hours later, he succumbed to his injuries.

In the past few months, following the protests, Chinese authorities have led large-scale manhunts for suspected demonstrators and in one instance, killing two brothers and maiming their mother in their hideout.

Scores of Tibetans have since been arrested arbitrarily and sentenced to lengthy prison terms, including life sentences.

Observers believe that the speedy sentencing of Tibetans show signs of a miscarriage of proper judicial procedure and have flayed Beijing for “criminalising” all legitimate forms of peaceful expressions.