Bhutan’s king, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, is in India this week. He went to the Maha Kumbh in Prayagraj on Tuesday and will also attend the Bengal Global Business Summit, part of his government’s effort to deepen the country’s regional economic ties. Bhutan, which is famous for its official doctrine of pursuing Gross National Happiness, is facing steep challenges including an exodus of young people, who are attracted by the relative freedom and opportunities in other countries.

While Jigme Khesar is in India, meeting with politicians and business leaders, spare a thought for at least 32 political prisoners – mostly Nepali-speaking Bhutanese – who are still languishing in his nation’s jails. The Indian government should encourage him to release them.

Bhutan has big plans, including for a vast new “mindfulness city”, enhanced transport links with India and bitcoin mining. The enduring presence of these prisoners is a stain on that futuristic vision.

These tragic cases originated before 2008, when the present king came to the throne, and Bhutan introduced a new democratic constitution. The country changed from an absolute monarchy into a multi-party democracy with a constitutional monarchy. But even as Bhutan modernised, its political prisoners remained locked up in dire conditions.

Most of Bhutan’s political prisoners may never be released. Twenty-four of them are serving life sentences with no possibility of parole. Their only chance of freedom is if the king grants them an amnesty. Even after the democratic reforms of 2008, only the king has the power to release prisoners serving a life sentence.

Through interviews with former and current prisoners and their families, a review of available court documents, and a survey of Bhutanese laws, Human Rights Watch has identified 32 men defined by Bhutan as “political prisoners” or “anti-nationals”, who have been in jail for between 16 and 34 years. Most of them are serving sentences of life without parole. They or their families told us that they were tortured to obtain confessions and had no defense lawyers at their trials.

Ram Bahadur Rai, now 66, was among around 90,000 Nepali-speaking Bhutanese who became refugees in 1990 when the government unleashed state violence against their community and drove them into exile, mostly in Nepal, but also in India. In 1994, when he was about 36, he returned to Bhutan to campaign for the right to return and told us he was distributing political leaflets when he was arrested. He said he was accused in a “fabricated” case of participating in political violence.

Rai said he was tortured so severely that he had to be hospitalised, only to be returned to jail and tortured again. By the time he was convicted and sentenced to almost 32 years in prison, he said the torture had left him unable to write his own application for an appeal. The appeal was rejected, and he was warned that if he appealed again his sentence could be increased.

After serving 30 years, with a little time knocked off for good behaviour, he was released in July 2024. He immediately sent a photograph of himself to his four children, “so they can know what their father looks like”. He had not been allowed to communicate with his family since 2012.

Rai said that for the remaining political prisoners, rations have been reduced to half their previous level, and the prisoners have had to resort to using rice sacks for clothing and bedding in the generally cold climate. If prisoners need medicine, they buy it by selling some of their food to the guards. The details Rai describes match the account of another man, Madhukar Monger, 58, who was released last year after serving 29 years for distributing leaflets.

Bhutan is proud to project an image around the world of having an enlightened and progressive government. Bhutanese law is based on Buddhist principles, such as compassion. The Bhutanese constitution provides guarantees against some human rights violations, including torture. And since the 2008 political changes there have been efforts to modernise the legal system, like providing defence lawyers at some trials.

While Jigme Khesar is in India, the people he meets should urge him to end the mistreatment of these prisoners, who were unjustly imprisoned so many decades ago. And the king, in turn, should exercise his unique power to show compassion and end the suffering of these prisoners and their families by releasing them. He could do it with a stroke of his pen.

Bhutan’s political prisoners should be freed, and this sad chapter, and the suffering it has caused, should be consigned to the past.

Meenakshi Ganguly is deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.