Photo : Tibet Times
Tsewang Rinchen, a Tibetan man from Rinpung county in Shigatse city near Lhasa, was sentenced to a year and six months jail term on July 16 by the Shigatse People’s court. Rinchen was accused of failure to comply with the local orders for nomads in the region to relocate to towns and cities. He was also accused of misusing his position as the secretary of the Rinpung county’s nomadic community, reports the Tibet Times. He lost his job and was fined Chinese Yuan 35,000 [＄5,200 / £ 4,250]. Currently, there is no information about in which prison he is being held.
According to a Tibet Times source, Tsewang Rinchen was initially arrested in May this year, on the charges above, and held in a detention centre for two months for interrogation. Some members of his family were summoned to his sentencing hearing.
He has been working as the secretary of Rinpung county since 2002. He is described as someone who has immense love and respect for his community, and for the Tibetan culture as a whole. In 2013, when the authorities ordered the nomads in Rinpung county to leave their traditional nomad lifestyles to live in towns and cities, Tsewang Rinchen submitted an application to the Chinese authorities stating the problems the nomads will face when losing their lifestyle, and the importance of allowing nomads to live in their own communities and keep and manage their livestock, which has been their livelihood for centuries.
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