Tibetan film-maker Dhondup Wangchen is serving a six year sentence in China for a documentary he made prior to the Beijing Olympics in 2008 in Qinghai province, western China.

The documentary, Leaving Fear Behind, features a series of interviews with Tibetans about their views on the then upcoming Beijing Olympics, the human rights situation in Tibet, and the Dalai Lama. The footage Dhondup Wangchen collected was smuggled to Switzerland, where it was edited by Filming For Tibet, a non-governmental organization founded by Dhondup Wangchen’s cousin, Gyaljong Tsetrin.

On 26 March 2008, Dhondup Wangchen was detained. He escaped on 13 July and telephoned Gyaljong Tsetrin. Dhondup Wangchen told his cousin how, during several weeks of interrogation at the Gongshang Hotel where the police were holding him, he had been beaten, punched in the head, frequently deprived of food and sleep, and tied to a chair. Dhondup Wangchen was detained again the following day.

In June 2009, Dhondup Wangchen was charged with “inciting separatism”. He was tried in secret, found guilty and in December 2009, he was sentenced. He has Hepatitis B, for which he has not received any medical treatment.

In July 2009, the authorities forced his family-appointed lawyers to stop representing him. It is unclear if he subsequently received any legal representation at his trial. Amnesty International considers him to be a prisoner of conscience.

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