Reporte By Kelsang Jinpa
Translated By TenGyal
Edited by Kelsang Jinpa
A campaign has been launched demanding that Dorjee Tashi’s lawyer be granted the right to review the case files, and that a retrial be held for the unfair sentence passed against Dorjee Tashi.
On October 26, Gonpo Kyi, elder sister of the Tibetan political prisoner Dorje Tashi has once again staged a peaceful protest campaign in front of the so called Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) High People’s Court, demanding a retrial for the unjust sentencing of Dorje Tashi.
In the two-point petition letter that she held in her hand, Gonpo Kyi stated that i) Dorje Tashi’s lawyer must be allowed to review his case file, and ii) the unfair sentence passed by the Court against Dorje Tashi must be reviewed, and a retrial must be convened. Furthermore, “Dorje Tashi is innocent” was inscribed below the two points.
Gonpo Kyi was accompanied by her husband Choekyong. He stated, “These two points must be addressed according to the Nation’s Constitution, but they are not being done so. The legal proceedings of the court are not being carried out in accordance with the Nation’s Constitution. Instead, she was beaten and dragged, leaving her with a broken arm, skeletal injuries, and internal haemorrhage.”
When a police officer told Choekyong that he wasn’t allowed to film, Choekyong replied, “Filming is permitted. The law isn’t being applied according to the Constitution. If things were carried out in accordance with the Constitution, we wouldn’t need to film. All the doctors in the hospital have been bribed. Everyone around here is trailing us. This happened on October 26th. Today again, police cars have surrounded us, preparing to make arrests.”
At the beginning of August this year, Gonpo Kyi staged a protest in front of the so-called TAR High People’s Court after lawyer Wang Fei was barred from meeting Dorje Tashi. At that time, the court stated that Wang Fei’s visits were blocked because he had previously informed the family that Dorje Tashi was being beaten in prison.
On August 12, a new report revealed that the so-called Tibet Autonomous Region People’s Court, besides not allowing Dorje Tashi to meet his own lawyer, has not allowed his elder sister Gonpo and brother Dorje Tseten to meet him for six years, and two years have passed without him meeting his wife and child.
Also, on June 7, Gonpo Kyi carried out a protest in front of the High People’s Court against the unfair sentence passed on Dorje Tashi, stating: “There is no law over the heads of the officials; it is the masses who must suffer the hardship. If there were law over the officials’ heads, the law should take action against these officials who place black hats on innocent people, but the law is not administered justly. These officials aren’t just doing this randomly—because they took bribes, they sit around making a mockery of the country’s constitution and the people.”
Dorje Tashi, the proprietor of Lhasa Yak Hotel, was arrested by Chinese authorities months after the 2008 Great Uprising on accusations of aiding protesters and making offerings to His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Following his arrest, he was forcibly disappeared for about eight months. His older brother, Dorje Tseten, was likewise detained for nearly two years. On May 17, 2010, the so-called Lhasa Intermediate People’s Court secretly handed Dorje Tashi a life sentence without any evidence, alleging loan fraud of roughly 1.5 million yuan. It sentenced his brother to six years’ imprisonment without any evidence, alleging loan fraud of roughly 1.5 million yuan. Both were sent to Drapchi Prison—the largest penal facility in the TAR and the site designated for political prisoners accused of “endangering national security.”
