Ngawang Chophel

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Ngawang Choephel is a Tibetan musician, filmmaker, and political prisoner.

1 Overview
2 External links

[edit] Overview

Choephel was born in Tibet in 1966, but his family fled to India in 1968. He later went to the USA to study music in 1994. He returned to Tibet in 1995 to make a film on traditional music and dance. He was later arrested by the Chinese in September 1995 on spying charges and held incommunicado and without trial for over 14 months. Then in late 1996, he was sentenced in a secret trial to 18 years in prison for "espionage and counter-revolutionary activities". The Chinese authorities have not produced evidence to support the charges against him.

In August 2000 his family was allowed to visit him, and he told his mother Ms. Sonam Dekyi that he had been on a hunger strike in protest at not receiving proper medical care. He told her that he had liver, lung and stomach ailments, and possibly a urinary tract infection and tuberculosis. After the visit, his mother Sonam Dekyi reported that her son Ngawang Choephel was very frail, just "skin and bones", with pale, almost yellow skin.

His case received international attention, and support from musicians including: Paul McCartney and Annie Lennox.