Arrest and Imprisonment
He was later arrested by the Chinese in September 1995 on spying charges and held incommunicado and without trial for over 14 months. Then in late 1996, he was sentenced in a secret trial to 18 years in prison for "espionage and counter-revolutionary activities". The Chinese authorities have not produced evidence to support the charges against him.
In August 2000 his mother and his uncle were allowed to visit him. He told his mother Ms. Sonam Dekyi that he had been on a hunger strike in protest at not receiving proper medical care. He told her that he had liver, lung and stomach ailments, and possibly a urinary tract infection and tuberculosis. After the visit, his mother Sonam Dekyi reported that her son Ngawang Choephel was very frail, just "skin and bones", with pale, almost yellow skin.
His case received international attention, and support from musicians including: Paul McCartney and Annie Lennox.
In 2002, Ngawang Chophel was released on "medical parole" from Chengdu prison after 6 years in jail.
Read more about this topic: Ngawang Chophel
Famous quotes containing the words arrest and/or imprisonment:
“Let me arrest thy thoughts; wonder with me,
Why plowing, building, ruling and the rest,
Or most of those arts, whence our lives are blest,
By cursed Cain’s race invented be,
And blest Seth vexed us with Astronomie.”
—John Donne (c. 1572–1631)
“... imprisonment itself, entailing loss of liberty, loss of citizenship, separation from family and loved ones, is punishment enough for most individuals, no matter how favorable the circumstances under which the time is passed.”
—Mary B. Harris (1874–1957)