Tibetan environmentalist gets 15 years on grave robbing charges, marking pressure on activists

Tibetan environmentalist gets 15 years in prison

BEIJING — A Tibetan environmentalist once praised as a model philanthropist was sentenced to 15 years in prison Thursday on charges of grave robbing and dealing in looted antiquities, in a case supporters said was aimed at punishing his activism.

The trial of Karma Samdrup came after he spoke up for his two brothers, also environmental activists, who were detained after accusing local officials in eastern Tibet of poaching endangered species. Authorities in tightly controlled Tibet are extremely sensitive to social activism and criticism, either explicit or implied.

The cases come amid increased repression of Tibetan intellectuals, an echo of the massive security crackdown that followed rioting in the capital, Lhasa, in 2008 in which at least 22 people died.

In addition to the prison sentence, Karma Samdrup was stripped of his political rights for five years and fined 10,000 yuan ($1,500) after a three-day trial with sessions that lasted until midnight, lawyer Pu Zhiqiang told The Associated Press.

“I want to appeal, I have to appeal,” Karma Samdrup’s wife, Zhenga Cuomao, quoted him as saying after the verdict was handed down at the court in remote Yanqi county in the Xinjiang region adjoining Tibet.

Phones at the court rang unanswered Thursday night after the verdict was announced.

Pu complained of irregularities in the trial, including witnesses who testified against Karma Samdrup that defense attorneys did not recognize. Court documents had removed evidence favorable to his client and added new testimony against him, he said, and the indictment had been translated from Chinese into a Tibetan dialect different from that spoken by Karma Samdrup, making it impossible for him to understand it.

Karma Samdrup’s wife and lawyers have accused police of torturing him in custody. In his statement to the court, he said that during months of interrogation, officers beat him, deprived him of sleep for days and drugged him with a substance that made his eyes and ears bleed, they said.

“I cannot recognize him anymore. I can only recognize his voice,” Zhenga Cuomao said. “He used to be so tall, so strong … now he looks so fragile.”

The charges against Karma Samdrup — named philanthropist of the year in 2006 by state broadcaster CCTV — date back to 1998 but were not pursued until this year.

The accusations stem from purchases that Karma Samdrup made of carpets, wooden artifacts and other antiques at a shop in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, Pu said. He added that Karma Samdrup bought the items because he was interested in them as a collector, but did not know that they had been plundered from graves in the region.

Robbie Barnett, a Tibet scholar at Columbia University, said that although powerful local officials were apparently behind the prosecution, judges had allowed an open trial with common criminal charges, which could reflect their unease in hearing the case. Most politically sensitive cases with Tibetans involve vague state security charges and a closed courtroom.

“It’s a terrible outcome in terms of the sentence but it does suggest that there was an effort by the judges to have some of a real legal process of a kind we have not seen and which may not have happened before with a Tibetan case in China,” he said.

Karma Samdrup’s younger brother, Chime Namgyal, is reportedly serving a 21-month sentence in a labor camp on the vague charge of harming national security. His older brother, Rinchen Samdrup, was scheduled to be tried on a similar charge this week, but that trial has been postponed.

“The results of Karma Samdrup’s trial will have a terrible impact on the Tibetan community. People are going to feel very vulnerable,” said Woeser, a Beijing-based Tibetan poet and activist who has been closely following the case. Like many Tibetans, she goes by only one name.

“Because if someone like Karma, whose prestige comes from his achievements in business and other philanthropic activities, and who never mixed in politics, can receive such a harsh sentence, then no one is safe,” she said.

Last month, the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet published a report saying 31 Tibetans are now in prison “after reporting or expressing views, writing poetry or prose, or simply sharing information about Chinese government policies and their impact in Tibet today.”

The report said it was the first time since the end of China’s chaotic Cultural Revolution in 1976 that there has been such a targeted campaign against Tibetan singers, artists and writers who peacefully express their views.

Associated Press Writer Isolda Morillo in Beijing contributed to this report.