Tibetan sentenced to 5 years for 2008 protests/ENG

2011. december 25./Phayul.com/TibetPress

DHARAMSHALA, December 25: A Tibetan arrested in connection with the 2008 mass uprisings in Tibet has been sentenced to five years in prison by a Chinese court in eastern Tibet.

According to the exile base of Kirti monastery in Dharamshala, north India, Tsering, 26, a native of Cha township in Ngaba county was sentenced to five years in prison on November 29 by the Ngaba county Intermediate Peoples’ Court.

Tsering was arrested in April 2010 and was kept in detention for more than one and a half years until his actual sentencing, last month.

A former monk at the Kirti monastery in Ngaba region of eastern Tibet, Tsering had taken part in the 2008 popular uprisings that gripped the entire Tibetan plateau.

Immediately after participating in the protests, Tsering went into hiding to evade arrest. He reportedly remained in hiding for over a year until his arrest in April 2010 from a restaurant in Ngaba town.

Tsering hails from Raru village, Cha township, Ngaba county. He became a monk at the Kirti monastery at a young age, but disrobed in 2007 and returned to his family in the pastoral area.

According to the Kirti monastery, during his time in hiding, police came looking for Tsering on multiple occasions, saying that he was one of the ringleaders of the Cha protest.

Since March this year, 12 Tibetans have set their bodies on fire, calling for the return of the Dalai Lama from exile and protesting China’s continued occupation of Tibet.