Tibetan activist released after five years of detention in China
Tashi Wangchuk, A defender of the Tibetan Language, He was arrested in 2016 and condemned in 2018 For a New York Times documentary in which he denounced a teaching deficit of the Tibetan language in the schools in his native province.
By AFP | semanariouniversidad@ucr.ac.cr
29 January, 2021
Video with English subtitles
A Tibetan activist who had been sentenced to five years in prison by the Chinese authorities for «Incitation to separatism» He was released, His lawyer announced on Friday.
Tashi Wangchuk, a defender of the Tibetan language arrested in 2016, He was convicted in 2018 by Chinese justice based on a documentary of late 2015 del New York Times.
The activist denounced a teaching deficit of the Tibetan language in the schools in his native Qinghai province (northwest), populated by numerous tibetans, and referred to a «systematic massacre» of local culture.
The documentary related his trip to Beijing, where he tried to sensitize the authorities and the media about their cause.
His lawyer announced Thursday on Twitter that he had been released and escorted home by officials, who was with his sister's family in Yushu and in good health, although it could not guarantee that it was «totally free».
On Friday, The lawyer told AFP that, After a first contact with the activist, He could no longer contact him or his family, And he expressed his fear that he is still subject to restrictions.
Judicial and penitentiary officials of the province of Qinghai, contacted by AFP, They refused to comment.
China intervened militarily in Tibet in 1951, After four decades of independence ‘de facto’ After the fall of the Chinese Empire. Many Tibetans accuse the government of religious and cultural repression and denounce the arrival of migrants from other regions.
