Two Tibetan monks, Gendun Drakpa, 40, and Lobsang Sherab, 36, missing since last year after being detained by police in Sichuan have been sentenced to prison terms of from four to five years for engaging in “separatist activities,” according to Tibetan sources quoted by Radio Free Asia (RFA) on June 21, 2017. They have been accused of passing politically sensitive information to contacts outside Dzoege (in Chinese, Ruo’ergai) county in the Ngaba (Aba) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. Drakpa was sentenced to five years in prison, while Sherab was handed a four-year term. It was not clear what information the monks were accused of passing or who the recipients were. When he was detained on Aug. 24, 2016, Drakpa was working as treasurer of Ngaba’s Thangkor Soktsang monastery, where Sherab was a worker in the monastery’s store.
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