This Thursday Rinchen Samdrup, an award-winning environmentalist from Tibet was scheduled to go on trial for “incitement to split the country,” yet had his trial abruptly canceled on Sunday. He, along with his younger brother Chime Namgyal, were arrested this past August for alleging that officials in eastern Tibet were poaching endangered species. Unlike his brother’s postponement, Chime Namgyal is believed to be serving a 21-month prison sentence in a labor camp on the charges of “harming national security.” A third brother, Karma Samdrup, was arrested on January 3rd while visiting his brothers in jail. The charges against him date back to a 1998 charge of "dealing in looted antiquities" but these were never mentioned until recently, leading many to believe that it was brought up due to the fact that he had been supporting his brothers’ cause. It is still not clear whether the trial of Richen Samdrup has been cancelled indefinitely due to problems with evidence or if this is simply a postponement; calls to the court for comment went unanswered. Karma Samdrup’s wife, Zhenga Cuomao reported that her husband found his brothers to be in poor health when he visited them, especially Chime who he felt “might not be able to live much longer.” Karma Samdrup’s lawyer, Pu Zhiqiang, was optimistic for acquittal but believed that with the current state of affairs his own role in bringing that about would be limited at best.
