20. Apr 2009
TCHRD calls for the release of Jigme Gyatso
(TCHRD) The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) has called on the government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) to order the immediate release on compassionate grounds of Jigme Gyatso, a 48-year-old Tibetan political prisoner, who is serving a 17-year sentence and is, according to TCHRD, seriously ill following years of torture and ill-treatment. Jigme Gyatos has been in prison since 1996, initially in Drapchi but currently in Chushul, after he was arrested for his involvement in demonstrations in Lhasa in the 1980s and 1990s. Jigme took part in the May 1998 protests in Drapchi Prison, prior to the visit of a troika of European Union ambassadors. These protests were brutally suppressed and resulted in the death of eight prisoners and sentence extensions of at least 27 prisoners.