Tibetan writer Drukar Gyal, also known as Druklo, was detained on March 19, 2015, according to Radio Free Asia. Gyal’s family discovered that he had been arrested after they reported him missing, according to Radio Free Asia, which cited an unnamed source.
A court in Huangnan Prefecture in China’s northwestern Qinghai province sentenced Gyal to three years in prison on February 17, 2016 for inciting separatism and endangering social stability, according to news reports. Gyal was not allowed access to a lawyer during his detention or trial, Amnesty International reported, without citing sources.
On March 16, 2015, police searched Gyal’s room and pointed guns at him when he asked to see a search warrant, according to Amnesty International. The court verdict cited Gyal’s posts on his blog and social media about this incident, his comments about religious freedom, and a repost of a news report about the Dalai Lama as evidence of “inciting separatism.”
Gyal denied the charges against him in court and wrote a letter to Qinghai High People’s Court to appeal his sentence, according to Washington D.C.-based International Campaign for Tibet.
Gyal was previously detained for more than a month in 2010 on allegations of conducting and instigating separatist activities, according to Radio Free Asia. Gyal had written about the Tibetan protests of 2008 and the harsh responses from the Chinese government.
Gyal was being held at the Tongren County Detention Center in Qinghai as of late 2017, according to the India-based Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy. CPJ’s attempts to call the Tongren Security Bureau in September 201