London June 23 (ANI): Award-winning conservationist and philanthropist Karma Samdrup has accused his Chinese jailers of torturing him during an interrogation in Yangqi County in Xinjiang.
Karma, a prominent businessman, issued a statement in the court detailing the brutal interrogation methods, including drugs that made his ears bleed, used on him by the captors.
"If not for his voice, I would not have recognised him," The Guardian quoted his wife Zhenga Cuomao as saying.
However, the prosecutor Kuang Ying denied violence being used against Samdrup.
Samdrup founded the Three Rivers Environmental Protection group and pushed for conservation of the source region for the Yangtze, Yellow and Lancang (Mekong) rivers. His group has won several awards for its work, including the Earth Prize, which is jointly administered by Friends of the Earth Hong Kong and the Ford motor company.
Samdrup was named 'philanthropist of the year' in 2006 by state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) for "creating harmony between men and nature".
In January, he was arrested on charges of robbing graves and stealing cultural artifacts. His supporters, however, claim that he is being unfairly punished for lobbying the authorities for the release of his two brothers who sought to expose officials who hunted endangered animals.
He is accused of illegally collecting information about the environment, natural resources and religion, organising petitions, and providing propaganda material for supporters of the Dalai Lama. Rinchen Samdrup is in custody but has not been tried.
If convicted, the maximum penalty could be death or life imprisonment, though his lawyer says a more lenient sentence is likely. (ANI)
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