A Tibetan Buddhist monk who was detained for six months without charge after he posted a video alleging rights abuse on YouTube has been released, two of his lawyers and an overseas group said yesterday.
The senior monk, Jigme, who like many Tibetans uses just one name, was detained after he put an account on YouTube about being abused when he was detained during a crackdown that followed riots across Tibetan areas of China in March last year.
Jiang Tianyong (江天勇) said he and another well-known activist lawyer, Li Fangping (李方平), went last week to Xiahe County, the site of Jigme’s Labrang monastery in western Gansu Province, but were not able to see Jigme, or a police officer in charge of the case.
“I learned yesterday that he was just released. We don’t know why he was taken, why he was released or the terms of his release,” Jiang said.
Hundreds of people have been detained in the crackdown following the deadly rioting in Tibet’s capital of Lhasa on March 14, and more than 70 sentenced in quick trials.
The Tibetan Government in Exile says they did not receive a fair trial.
Li said it is likely Jigme was released on bail, but police didn’t show the family or him any evidence and gave no explanation.
Jigme was seized by police on Nov. 4 when he returned to the Labrang monastery in Xiahe after being in hiding, the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet said.
In a telephone interview in September, Jigme described how he was interrogated and abused for two months after four uniformed guards dragged him into a van in March last year.
An account of his detention was posted on YouTube, after which he went into hiding.
Jigme said he did not take part in the protests, the most sustained Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule in decades.
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