AN AWARD-WINNING Tibetan environmentalist has been sentenced to 15 years in prison by a Chinese court, despite his claims that guards had tortured him to try to extract a confession.
Karma Samdrup – who used part of a fortune he made from antique-dealing to fund a conservation campaign on the Tibetan Plateau – was convicted on Thursday of grave-robbing, a 12-year-old charge against him that had previously been dropped.
His lawyer, Pu Zhiqiang, said the trial was a miscarriage of justice because of evidence tampering, inadequate translation and the judge refusing to look into the defendant’s claims of beatings and sleep deprivation while in custody.
“The court completely ignored the facts . . . and violated Karma’s humanity,” Mr Pu said.
Mr Samdrup’s wife, Zhenga Cuomao, said her husband had refused to sign a confession despite being doused with water in the middle of winter and being denied food and sleep for long periods of time. Prosecutors denied the allegations of maltreatment.
Mr Samdrup is the highest-profile Tibetan to be jailed for many years. He founded the Three Rivers Environmental Protection group and campaigned for conservation of the source region for the Yangtze, Yellow and Lancang (Mekong) rivers. Working closely with the authorities, his group has won several awards, including the Earth prize, which is jointly administered by Friends of the Earth Hong Kong and Ford. In 2006, he was named philanthropist of the year by state broadcaster CCTV for “creating harmony between men and nature”.
International human rights groups expressed concern at the verdict, which they said they suspected was an effort to silence a prominent Tibetan family who had spoken out against local officials’ abuse of power. Nicholas Bequelin, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, said the release of the 10-page verdict hours after the trial ended suggested the decision was preordained.
The defendant’s two brothers – Rinchen Samdrup and Jigme Namgyal – were arrested last August and remain in custody after their environmental protection group, the Voluntary Environmental Protection Association of Kham Anchung Senggenamzong, exposed a police chief who hunted endangered animals in a nature reserve. – (Guardian service)