Prisoner of conscience, Tashi Wangchuk, has been detained for over a year and has yet to be informed by Chinese authorities of the charges against him.
Tashi Wangchuk was first detained on 27 January 2016 and formally arrested in March 2016 on suspicion of “inciting separatism”, which carries a penalty of up to 15 years in prison. According to the document submitted by the police to the Procuratorate (Prosecutor), and reviewed by defense lawyers in September 2016, the central evidence against him is based on a short documentary produced by The New York Times in 2015.
The Procuratorate resubmitted the case to the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture Intermediate People’s Court in early January 2017, however Tashi Wangchuk has still not received information about the formal indictment or the charges against him. According to the judge presiding over the case, the court is currently verifying the evidence and negotiating with the Procuratorate, and therefore would not deliver the indictment to him as the charge may be changed.
Tashi Wanchuk is an advocate for greater Tibetan language education in schools in Tibetan populated areas. Currently, Mandarin has become the sole language of instruction. He expressed on social media his anxieties about many Tibetan children being unable to speak their native language fluently, as well as the gradual extinction of Tibetan culture.
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