TCHRD has learned through reliable sources the demise of Nyima Drakpa, 29, in his home on 1 October 2003. Nyima Drakpa, who was serving nine years’ imprisonment sentence, was released in early September 2003 on medical parole. At the time of his release from the prison, Drakpa was reportedly in severe health complications. Drakpa was arrested in May 2000 and subsequently sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment on charges of “endangering state security” and “incitement against the masses”.
In late 1999, Drakpa pasted pro-independence posters on the gates of a Memorial Garden in Tawu County, Kardze Tibet Autonomous Prefecture (“TAP”), Sichuan. The posters contained slogans such as “Free Tibet”, “Tibetans in Tibet have no freedom”, “Tibet is not a part of China”, was signed at the end with his name. The County Public Security Bureau (“PSB”) officials started investigations the very next day and detained another person with the same name from Drakpa’s monastery, Nyitso Monastery.