SYDNEY, Sept 7 AAP - Members of Sydney's Tibetan community formed a human chain outside the Chinese consulate in the city centre today to call for greater justice and human rights to be extended to Tibet's political prisoners.

About 50 protesters waved flags and shouted outside the consulate in Elizabeth Street, while their children wore black gags over their mouths to symbolise the lack of free speech imposed by Chinese authorities since they took over Tibet in 1950.

One of the protesters, 28-year-old Thubten Gyaltsen, told of 12 months imprisonment and torture in the Drapchi Prison where he was tied upside down to the roof of his cell and repeatedly beaten, while wearing iron bars on his feet and hands.

Mr Gyaltsen said he had been interred in the same cell as Tibet's longest serving political prisoner, Jigme Sangpo, who is serving a 41-year sentence, with hard labour, for demonstrating against Chinese occupation.

Mr Gyaltsen said his former cellmate was an inspiration because his spirit "had never failed".

"He still believes in the truth of the Tibetan peoples' struggle for justice," Mr Gyaltsen said.

Today's protest called for Sangpo and other political prisoners to be released.