A-Nya Sengdra allowed to meet family, but remains in prison
The anti-corruption activist was found to be in poor health during the few minutes of their meeting
The family of Tibetan anti-corruption activist and community leader A-Nya Sengdra have been granted their first visit to him since his arrest six years ago. A-Nya Sengdra remains in prison and in poor health.
On 6 September 2024, Lin Qilei, A-Nya’s defence lawyer and a prominent Chinese human rights advocate, told Tibet Watch that A-Nya Sengra’s family was allowed to meet him for the first time over a month ago after they filed a complaint. Their first meeting in more than six years lasted only a few minutes.
A-Nya Sengdra was in a weak health condition, Lin revealed, and therefore the family, and A-Nya, too, complained again to the prison authorities but they were denied further visits. Lin had been told last year by the judge overseeing A-Nya’s case that “ this kind of appeal could not be expected.”
Eight months ago, Lin visited the Sixth Circuit Court of the Supreme People’s Court, based in the city of Xi’an, to inquire about the status of the court appeal of A-Nya Sengdra. There, he was informed that the appeal is still under review and that he should wait patiently.
A-Nya Sengdra was widely known as a campaigner against illegal mining, illegal hunting and poaching of endangered animals and alleged corruption among local authorities. He is from Gade County, which is located in Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in eastern Tibet.
He was detained by the Gade County Public Security Bureau in September 2018, charged with “gathering people to disturb public order” and “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”.
Lin Qilei stated at the time that he believed these charges were false and were instead related to an ongoing government-led campaign targeting Tibetans involved in political activity or celebrating their culture, which the Chinese government publicised as a crackdown on ”underworld forces”.
A-Nya Sengdra, then 47 years old, was reportedly beaten in detention and held for over a year before being sentenced to seven years in prison by Golog People’s Intermediate Court on 6 December 2019. During his detention period, his wife Yangkyi was denied access to visit him.
His case was taken up by a number of Tibet groups, while in 2020, a group of UN human rights experts wrote to the Chinese government in 2020, urging it to drop the charges against him.
Information supplied by Tibet Watch
