Kunchok Tsephel was released on 18 March 2022 after serving more than 13 years at two different prisons including Dingxi near Lanzhou city in Gansu Province. Tsephel’s 15-year prison term had been reduced by almost two years after he saved the life of a fellow prisoner and collected ‘points’ for exhibiting ‘good behaviour’.

He was detained in the early morning hours of 26 February 2009 after his house was ransacked and his computer, camera, and mobile phone seized. On 12 November 2009, he was convicted of “leaking state secrets” and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment in a closed-door proceeding by the Kanlho (Ch: Gannan) Intermediate People’s Court.

Tsephel’s charges were connected to the content on his website and for sharing information outside Tibet regarding the brutality committed by the Chinese People’s Armed Police against Tibetans during the 2008 Uprising.