ངོ་འཕྲད་བདེ་བའི་དྲ་འབྲེལ།

གཟའ་པ་སངས། ༢༠༢༤/༠༣/༢༩

Three Tibetans Sentenced Over Arson in 2008 Tibet Riots བོད་སྐད།


Chinese state media are reporting that a court in Tibet has issued a suspended death sentence for one Tibetan woman and stiff jail terms for two others accused of lighting deadly fires during riots last year.

The reports say that the young women were involved in the setting of two fires that killed six people.

The official Xinhua news agency says the Tibetan woman who was given a suspended death sentence, Penkyi, was involved in setting both fires in clothing stores during anti-China riots in Lhasa in March of last year. Penkyi was given a two-year reprieve.

If she shows good behavior, her sentence will be commuted to life imprisonment.

The two other women one also named Penkyi and another named Chime Lhamo helped set a second fire that killed five other people.

One was sentenced to life in prison Penkyi, while the other received a 10-year sentence.

Earlier this month, China handed down its first known death sentences in connection with the 2008 protests in and around Lhasa.

Those protests turned violent on March 14th after the government sent in security forces to disperse them.

Chinese officials say 21 ethnic Han and Tibetan civilians and one police officer died at the hathe accused were defended by lawyers and provided with Tibetan interpreters.

Following the March 2008 protests, several lawyers from the Mainland China who offered to represent Tibetan detainees were, however, reportedly threatened by Chinese authorities not to help Tibetans or else they might lose their registration to practice law.

Some information for this report was provided by AP and Phayul.

XS
SM
MD
LG