Dharamshala, India— Chinese authorities sentenced a young Tibetan man to two years in prison for allegedly sending information to Europe and India via the Chinese social media application (Wechat), after five months of detention during which he was tortured and beaten.
According to a reliable source, Chinese authorities in Karze County detained a young Tibetan man called ThupSam on 3 May 2022 in a restaurant of Karze County. He was subsequently detained and accused of leaking politically sensitive information outside Tibet and sentenced to two years in prison.
"ThupSam was sentenced to two years in prison for allegedly "leaking state secrets", " splitting the nation" and "endangering state security" by the Kardze Intermediate People's Court recently,” a source told TPI, on condition of anonymity.
"The Kardze Intermediate People's Court summoned his brother and ThupSam's wife to court on November 21, 2022 and informed them that ThupSam had been sentenced to two years in prison," the source told the TPI, citing contacts in the region.
“ThupSame was arrested by Chinese authorities in a restaurant of the Karze County on May 3, 2022. At the time, the authorities accused him of sending information about Tibet to Europe and India via the Chinese social media application (Wechat). He spent five months in detention, during which time he was tortured and beaten,” the source said.
According to the source, ThupSam is 28 years old and comes from Bhamnyi village, Sershul County in eastern Tibet. He has a five-year-old daughter and lives with his parents, brother and wife. He is skilled and talented in handicrafts and the family's income comes from his skills.
China-Tibet: The one-thing you need to know
Over the past 70 decades, there has been ongoing political repression, social discrimination, economic marginalization, environmental destruction, and cultural assimilation, particularly due to Chinese migration to Tibet which is fueling intense resentment among the people of occupied Tibet.
The communist-totalitarian state of China began its invasion of Tibet in 1949, reaching complete occupation of the country in 1959. Since that time, more than 1.2 million people, 20% of the nation's population of six million, have died as a direct result of China's invasion and occupation. In addition, over 99% of Tibet's six thousand religious monasteries, temples, and shrines, have been looted or decimated resulting in the destruction of hundreds of thousands of sacred Buddhist scriptures.
Until 1949, Tibet was an independent Buddhist nation in the Himalayas which had little contact with the rest of the world. It existed as a rich cultural storehouse of the Mahayana and Vajrayana teachings of Buddhism. Religion was a unifying theme among the Tibetans -- as was their own language, literature, art, and world view developed by living at high altitudes, under harsh conditions, in a balance with their environment.
