From: World Tibet Network News, 29 May 1995

A Tibetan prisoner is under threat of execution for staging a pro-independence demonstration in prison three months ago and Tibetans in Lhasa have appealed for help to save him from the death sentence, according to sources in Lhasa with connections to the main prison there.

Prison authorities and the Labour Reform Bureau are said to have written to the Procuracy and to the regional intermediate court calling for the death sentence to be handed down on the prisoner, 33 year old Lodroe Gyatso. The exile Tibetan Government reported last week that a lower court has already passed a death sentence, and that the sentence is awaiting ratification from the Tibet's High court.

Lodroe Gyatso, a professional dancer who comes from Sog county in Nagchu, Northern Tibet, has been in Unit 1 of Drapchi prison in Lhasa since 1993, when he was sentenced to 15 years for killing a man during an argument. Tibetans in Lhasa say that Lodroe, a member of the Sog County Dance Group, was acting in self-defence.

The threat of execution arises from an incident in the prison which was political, say the sources. On 4th March 1995, two days after the Tibetan New Year, Lodroe Gyatso shouted slogans inside the prison compound at Drapchi and handed out leaflets he had written praising the Dalai Lama and calling for Tibetan independence, they say.

The exile Tibetan Government in a statement released in India on 18th May says that the Intermediate Court has already passed a death sentence and that the case is now waiting confirmation from the regional High Court.

"We request an urgent announcement by the international media", said an appeal smuggled out to TIN from Tibet this week. "He was originally imprisoned for a criminal offence, but this is a political matter and now the government is likely to execute him for it," said another.