The Tibetan man recently charged with spying on his fellow exiles for the Chinese government denies charges.
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The suspect, the 49-year old Dorjee Gyantsan, is in exile in Sweden but has allegedly met with Chinese officials on several occasions and was caught travelling to Sweden from Poland with a briefcase containing $6.000, allegedly as a payment for providing information to officials. He was arrested on Wednesday the 11th of April by Swedish authorities.
In an interview with Radio Free Asia Tibetan Service, he denies all charges:
“I have never passed any information about Tibetans to the Chinese embassy,” Dorjee Gyantsan told RFA by phone on April 16.
He denies knowledge of interacting with Chinese officials in Poland:
“I met the Chinese man from Warsaw while traveling together on a boat, and I met with him again a few times afterward,” Dorjee Gyantsan said.
“He told me that he was a student at Warsaw University, so I was not even aware that he is a secretary at the Chinese embassy,” he said.
Read also: Tibetan leader thanks Sweden for arresting alleged spy
And concerning the $6000 he returned with after meeting with the official, those money were allegedly not from Chinese officials, but from his mother, although they were delivered by a Chinese businessman working in Sweden:
“It was not given to me by the Chinese man working at the embassy,” he said.
He does admit to have met with a Chinese journalist working for China Daily, but according to Dorjee Gyantsan, that meeting was of an innocent character:
“He once saw me reading a message by [exiled Tibetan spiritual leader] His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Chinese, so he contacted me and we exchanged phone numbers,” Dorjee Gyantsan said.
“We met again later on several occasions, and he even invited me to meals that he paid for. But I’ve never given him any information about Tibetans,” he said.
Dorjee Gyantsan faces a possible sentence of four years in jail if found guilty.
