08 December 2006
Sentence extended for shouting slogan
(CECC) The Chinese government has extended the sentence of Jigme Gyatso, a former Ganden Monastery monk who operated a restaurant in Lhasa, according to a report in ‘Dialogue’, a newsletter published by The Dui Hua Foundation. The report describes the conviction and imprisonment of Jigme Gyatso as one of several "high-profile cases of concern to the international community". Officials detained Jigme Gyatso at his restaurant in March 1996, and a court sentenced him in November 1996 to 15 years' imprisonment for counterrevolution. The 1997 revision to the Criminal Law eliminated this offence. The Dialogue article reports that Jigme Gyatso received a three-year extension in May 2004 for "inciting splittism" after he shouted pro-Dalai Lama slogans in TAR Prison (Drapchi). According to a March 2006 report by Manfred Nowak, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, describing his late-2005 mission to China, Jigme Gyatso told Nowak during an interview conducted at Chuchul (Chin: Qushui) Prison, that the sentence extension was for two years. Information is not available that would resolve the apparent contradiction, but the Dialogue article notes that several Chinese government responses mention a three-year extension and provide a new release date in March 2014.