Tibetan activist, A-Nya Sengdra and his lawyer prepare to fight seven-year prison sentence.

Chinese human rights lawyer Lin Qilei has told Free Tibet that he has appealed for his Tibetan client, A-Nya Sengdra, to get a second court trial. The appeal follows A-Nya Sengdra’s trial on 6 December last year, in which he was handed a seven-year prison sentence.

A-Nya Sengdra

Lin met with Tibetan activist, A-Nya, at Machen county prison in Golog on Wednesday and has made a petition for a second trial to the Qinghai High Court on A-Nya’s behalf.

The lawyer said his client was “falsely charged” in the first trial and was accused by authorities of being involved in activities linked to “underworld forces”, despite no evidence to suggest it.

“It is obvious Tibetan petitioners are being subjected to crackdowns and are being falsely charged under dubious laws. We want to get a fair result in the second trial, but I’m not too hopeful,” Lin said.

A-Nya Sengdra was sentenced to seven years in prison by the Golog People’s Intermediate Court at the end of his first trial on 6 December 2019. The court found him guilty of “gathering people to disturb public order” and “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.”

Local authorities had  previously alleged that A-Nya Sengdra was involved in setting up WeChat groups for citizens titled: “anti-corruption”, “environmental protection” and ”people’s petitions.”

On the day A-Nya was sentenced, his lawyer Lin tweeted his client would continue to fight.

“A-Nya Sengdra refuses to accept the verdict and appeals!”, Lin wrote.