Dorje Tashi

  • Dorje Tashi

Summary: In 2008 Dorje Tashi was detained for allegedly sheltering Tibetan protestors in his hotel and making a donation to the Tibetan community in exile.
Charge: “loan fraud”
Sentence: LIFE IMPRISONMENT
Prison: Chushur Prison, Lhasa
Status: He was detained on 10 July 2008 and sentenced after a secret trial in 2010. He is now gravely unwell. Recent reports detail the extreme and severe treatment he suffered including beatings with electric batons, being cuffed to an iron bar and hung in the air, simulation of suffocation, pouring of hot chili fluid through nostrils and intense sleep deprivation. This violence has taken its toll, leaving Dorje Tashi with a severe heart condition.

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Dorje Tashi is gravely unwell in Chinese custody and must be released for medical care immediately

In August 2021 International Campaign for Tibet released a harrowing account of Dorje Tashi’s torture during his pretrial detention in 2008.

The account was given by Dorje Tashi to his lawyer in preparation for a retrial of his case in 2014 but it has only just come to light.

Warning: This report contains graphic depictions of torture.

Beginning of Torture
Dorjee Tashi was questioned back-and-forth for days and was kept awake for more than 70 hours in one stint.

At one point his interogater became angry – he dragged a wooden chair and told Dorjee Tashi to stand on it then handcuffed his hands behind his back and tied me to the top of the cell’s iron bar. The chair was pulled away from him so he was left hanging with his arms behind his back.

Dorje Tashi explains that the pain was excruciating and, tired from the days and nights of interrogation, he finally passed out. But his interrogator hit him with an electric baton all over his body –  the beating with the electric shock brought him back to consciousness.

After being hung for many hours, Dorjee Tashi was dropped down to the floor, then after some time, hung up in the air again. This intense torture continued till the next morning.

“My shoulder swelled and the flesh and skin raptured at some areas forming bloody wounds after five continuous days and nights of interrogation and torture. They did not give me any proper food.”

“Besides losing consciousness due to torture, I was dying for sleep when I was in a conscious state. Whenever I fell into momentary sleep, I forgot about the pain and torture. I would dream of bed during that momentary sleep.”

Read More:

International Campaign for Tibet: Testimony reveals pre-trial torture of Tibetan businessman-philanthropist

Tibetan Centre for Democracy and Human Rights: Release Tibetan businessman unjustly imprisoned for life and reverse discriminatory verdict