A prominent Tibetan writer, editor and teacher was released earlier today after the completion of his three-year prison term from Mianyang Prison in Sichuan Province.
According to information received by TCHRD, Jolep Dawa, the founder and editor of a Tibetan language journal called Durab Ki Nga (This Century’s Self) was released at around 9 am on 30 September 2013, after being imprisoned in Mianyang for three years on trumped up charges of “separatism”. At the time of his sentencing, Jolep Dawa was 39 and a father of two.
Jolep Dawa was arrested by state security officers on 1 October 2010 in Chengdu and was detained for a year at Jinchuan County Detention Centre before his sentencing. After his arrest, Chinese police raided the bookstore cum DVD rental store (run by Dawa’s wife Zamlha) and confiscated his personal computer and diary along with some of his writings.
After a year of arbitrary detention, on 29 October 2011, Jolep Dawa was sentenced to three years for ‘separatism’, a charge that now allows police to secretly detain suspects for months. The Barkham (Ch: Ma’erkang) Intermediate People’s Court in Ngaba Prefecture passed the sentence.
Many Tibetans continue to be unlawfully charged with threatening the security of the Chinese nation, sharing ‘secrets’ of Chinese government with outsiders, and for engaging in ‘separatist’ activities. These charges come under ‘national security crimes’, which make it easy for the secret police to detain people for months without informing their family members. The ‘Gestapo term’ or Article 78, introduced last year in China’s Criminal Procedure Law legalises enforced disappearance of Tibetans charged with ‘national security’ crimes.
Jolep Dawa had been targeted in the past for his involvement in a mass campaign to end the use of animal fur on Tibetan clothing, for which he was detained for a month. Jolep Dawa was also a popular organizer of Tibetan cultural conferences.
Jolep Dawa was born and brought up Jolep Village in Ngaba County in Ngaba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. He was a full-time teacher at a school in Ngaba town and used to edit and write for the journal during his free time.