16. Nov 2009
Tibetan cultural website founder sentenced to 15 years
(ICT) The International Campaign for Tibet reports that Kunchok Tsephel, an official in a Chinese government environmental department and founder of the influential Tibetan literary website, 'Butter-Lamp' (Tib: Chodme), has been sentenced to 15 years in prison on charges of disclosing state secrets. Some of the charges are believed to relate to content on his website, which aims to protect Tibetan culture, and passing information about protests in Tibet in 2008. Kunchok Tsephel was detained in the early hours of the morning on 26 February 2009. He received his sentence after a closed-door trial at the Intermediate People's Court of Kanlho (Chin: Gannan) TAP, Gansu province.