Tibetan campaigner jailed for five years

A TIBETAN environmentalist was sentenced to five years in prison yesterday on a charge of inciting separatism in China, in the latest sign of what human rights groups called increasing repression of intellectuals.

Chinese authorities said an article on Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama was posted on Rinchen Samdrup's website, which is devoted to environmental protection in the Himalayan region.

Samdrup pleaded not guilty in a trial that lasted less than two hours. He told the Changdu Intermediate People's Court he did not post the article and it was a mistake not to delete it quickly.

The Chinese government is highly sensitive about anything related to the Dalai Lama, who it has accused of supporting independence for Tibet. Tensions in the region escalated after 2008 rioting in the Tibetan capital Lhasa, in which at least 22 people died.

"I feel regret about this sentence," said his lawyer Xia Jun. "It was a mistake but not a crime." He said someone else posted the article, not Samdrup. He did not say who.

The sentence comes little over a week after Samdrup's brother, Karma Samdrup, a nationally known environmentalist once praised by the Chinese government as a model philanthropist, was sentenced to 15 years in prison on charges of grave-robbing and dealing in looted antiquities.

His supporters said the sentence was aimed at punishing his activism, including his efforts to free Rinchen Samdrup and another brother from detention. Rinchen Samdrup and brother Chime Namgyal were detained after accusing local officials in eastern Tibet of poaching endangered species.

Chime Namgyal is reportedly serving a 21-month sentence in a labour camp on the vague charge of harming national security. Even after Rinchen Samdrup was detained, the People's Daily newspaper, the mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party, published stories this year in praise of his environmental work.

Rinchen Samdrup has ten days to appeal.

"The verdict is unacceptable. He was wrongly accused," said Rinchen Samdrup's daughter, Dorje Songmu, who attended the trial. "This morning, he looked much thinner than before. His condition was not very good. We couldn't talk with him directly."

Human Rights Watch last month said the Samdrup brothers "embody the characteristics the government says it wants in modern Tibetans... yet they, too, are being treated as criminals".