Patrick Leahy: “I was outraged when I heard of Mr. Choephel's 18-year prison sentence in December. This followed a secret trial and…”

“I was outraged when I heard of Mr. Choephel's 18-year prison sentence in December. This followed a secret trial and followed a year of incommunicado detention. The Chinese Government has not released a shred of evidence that Mr. Choephel committed any crime. In fact, I understand the entire 16 hours of videotape that he sent out of Tibet prior to his arrest contained only footage of traditional Tibetan music and dance. That is what he studied at Middlebury College and that is the reason he returned to Tibet. The frustrating aspect of this is that China has done so much to destroy a lot of the tradition of Tibet, the history, the writings, the music, the dance. Mr. Choephel was simply preserving for future generations what is so important in this ancient, ancient culture.”