Former member of the National Assembly and of the Royal Advisory Council Tek Nath Rizal was sentenced to life imprisonment in December 1993 for charges including treason and sowing communal discord. These relate to non-violent opinions expressed about the situation in southern Bhutan. Tek Nath Rizal has been imprisoned on previous occasions. He has been granted a pardon for his latest sentence but this is conditional on the governments of Bhutan and Nepal resolving the problem of the southern Bhutan refugees living in refugee camps in Nepal. AI considers him to be a prisoner of conscience who should be immediately and unconditionally released.
