(Tibetan environmentalist Karma Samdrup at Mount Kawakarpo Dechen, in China's Yunnan province, in 2008. Photograph: AP. Image from The Guardian)Samdrup's wife, attending his trial on charges of robbing graves and stealing cultural artifacts, has told media that her husband was almost unrecognisable. Samdrup himself opened his defence with accusations of torture in the time since he was detained on January 3rd 2010:
- Beatings and physical abuse
- Sleep deprivation
- Injection with drugs that made his ears bleed
His siblings, Rinchen Samdrup and Jigme Namgyal, were arrested last August after their separate environmental protection group – Voluntary Environmental Protection Association of Kham Anchung Senggenamzong – sought to expose officials who hunted endangered animals. Namgyal is serving a 21-month re-education-through-labour sentence for "harming national security."
He is accused of illegally collecting information about the environment, natural resources and religion, organising petitions, and providing propaganda material for supporters of the Dalai Lama. Rinchen Samdrup is in custody but has not been tried.
According to the International Campaign for Tibet, this may be part of a new campaign against intellectuals.
The Washington-based group said last month that 31 Tibetans are now in prison "after reporting or expressing views, writing poetry or prose, or simply sharing information about Chinese government policies and their impact in Tibet today".
Accusations of police and prison guard brutality are commonplace in China. This month, Wu Lihong – an award-winning anti-pollution campaigner in Jiangsu province – told the Guardian he was beaten by guards during the three year jail sentence he has just completed.
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