Tibetan student sentenced to two and half years' prison, two released

an undated picture of Dorjee/file  August 13 - A Chinese court in Tibet's Rebkong had sentenced a Tibetan youth to two and a half years in prison, for his "involvement with self immolation protests" in November last year, sources said. The verdict was announced in February this year but emerged only now due to China's strict censorship and monitoring of information. Dorjee, a student of the Rebkong intermediate school, was also charged with "instigating separatism", engaging in pro-independence protests and founding a group called 'Ghangsol Gyunzin Tsokpa' (Eng: Tibet culture preservation organization). He is currently held at a detention centre in Xiling, Qinghai. He is a native of Dowa town in Rebkong. Meanwhile, two monks, Drakpa Gyatso and Jigme Tenzin, both from Dowa town of Rebkong, had been released. They were arrested following fiery self immolation protests by Tibetans in the region that alone has seen 13 self-immolations since March 14, 2012. The deepening crisis inside Tibet has witnessed large scale anti-China protests and a series of self-immolations that has now seen 120 Tibetans set themselves on fire, since 2009, demanding freedom and the return of the Dalai Lama from exile.