Dharamshala: Political prisoner Wangchuck has just been released after serving a three-year sentence in Tibet, according to information from Kunsang Tenzin, a Tibetan living in South India. Wangchuck's fellow prisoner Woser, arrested for the same crime, has not been released.
The Tibet Post International has learnt that both men were arrested on 2 August 2008 for planning to demonstrate at Kubom Monastery with a Tibetan flag. Seven others were preparing to demonstrate with them.
Chinese authorities found out about the plan, so the demonstration was never carried out and the Tibetan flag was removed. All nine men were detained, tortured, and interrogated.
Wangchuck and Woser accepted full responsibility for organizing the demonstrations; therefore, the other seven men were released. Wangchuck and Woser were sentenced to three years in prison each on the charge of "seperatist activities."
On 8 June 2011, Wangchuck, at 30 years old, was released in very poor health. He had suffered some brain damage, and his family was therefore quite worried for his life. Though Woser's three-year sentence is completed, he has not been released from prison. His family still has no idea as to his whereabouts.
His arrest in 2008 was not the first time he had faced the Chinese authorities--Woser, along with his wife and their child, had attempted an escape to India in 1997. The authorities, however, found out about his plot, detained him in Lhasa, and forced him to return home.
