Authorities appear to be delaying the prosecution of a Tibetan writer who wrote a book supporting a campaign of peaceful protest and civil disobedience in Tibet."The police told us that his case is quite special because it has to do with different ethnicities," Yeshi Tsomo, daughter of the Tibetan writer Tagyal, said in an interview."They must have given a nod to the state prosecutor because the case is still with the police."Tagyal, 47, who publishes under the pen name Shogdung, was first detained April 23, and was later formally arrested for "instigating to split the motherland."

Shogdung’s family has not been allowed to visit him since his detention. Several elderly people from his village were recently able to bring tsampa (roasted barley flour) to the writer in prison, but were not allowed to see him.

Officials at the Xining People's Procuratorate, or state prosecutor, were reluctant to address the case directly. "It's not convenient for me to talk about these things," he said. "I have only just started here."

Beijing-based rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang, who defended jailed Tibetan environmentalist and businessman Karma Samdrup, said it is hard to gauge what will happen to Tagyal's case next.

"If the court wants to go ahead with the trial, it won't wait one minute, and if it doesn't, it will ignore the case for years," Pu said. "This falls under national anti-separatism laws."

At the time of his formal arrest, Tagyal was detained in the Xining No. 1 Detention Center. He previously worked at the Qinghai Nationalities Publishing House, in the provincial capital.

He was one of eight intellectuals who signed an April 17 letter that expressed sorrow over an April 14 earthquake in China's western Qinghai province that left more than 2,000 people dead, mostly Tibetans, and urged wariness of Chinese government relief efforts.

The letter Tagyal signed had urged people to help victims by offering food, clothing, and medicine, but warned them to avoid official relief channels.

The Xining police department has declined to comment on the case, and whether the open letter was the direct cause for his detention is unclear—although Chinese authorities have been at pains to quash any criticism of its relief efforts in the Tibetan region.