The most significant national-level political prisoner of South Asia is kept in prison to maintain the fiction of a conspiracy against the Bhutanese State.
After three years in prison without charge or trial, shackled most of the time and often in solitary confinement, Teknath Rizal was produced before Bhutan's High Court late last year. Four years to the day since he was abducted by agents of the Royal Government of Bhutan from his exile in Nepal, in a 250-page "reasoned judgement" — the words of the official paper Kuensel —the High Court sentenced Rizal to life imprisonment.
Whether the wider world knows of it or not, Rizal is South Asia's most significant political prisoner. While there obviously are political detainees serving time from Kashmir to Colombo, Rizal's case is unique because it is a national Government that has put him behind bars.
A full bench of honourable judges conducted the trial, which took place over a full year, with 33 hearings in which 15 witnesses testified against Rizal. The judges handed down the sentence of life imprisonment under the National Security Act of Bhutan of 1992, legislated three years after Rizal's imprisonment.