Two Tibetans, Lobsang Gyaltsen and Loyak, have been sentenced to death by the Lhasa Municipal Intermediate People’s Court today for what the Chinese state media (Xinhua) described as “arson cases that left seven people dead and five shops burned to the ground in Lhasa” last March. Another two - Tenzin Phuntsok and Kagstsuk - have been sentenced to death with two years suspension and a fifth, Dawa Sangpo, to life imprisonment.

This is the first report of death sentences given out for the 14 March 2008 violence in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa. According to Xinhua, Lobsang Gyaltsen was sentenced to death for burning two clothing shops in downtown Lhasa on 14 March, killing a shop owner. Loyak was sentenced to death for his role in the burning of a motorcycle shop that killed the owner, his wife, his son, and two employees, Xinhua said.

A spokesperson for the Tibetan Government-in-Exile has told Associated Press (AP) those sentenced had not received a fair trial and warned of even greater resentment among Tibetans. “These decisions are made by a kangaroo court of law. There is no proper legal defence for the accused,” AP quoted Thupten Samphel as saying. “These kinds of decisions increase China’s Tibet problem. China should show magnanimity to make Tibetan people less resentful.”

The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD), a Tibetan NGO monitoring human rights in Tibet, condemned the verdicts saying they clearly “highlight the current level of repression in Tibet where state agencies freely abuse the human rights of the Tibetan people with impunity.” TCHRD called the verdicts “an intimidation being passed onto the Tibetans who dare show their dissent with the state.”

According to the UK’s Free Tibet Campaign, recent trials of Tibetans for their alleged roles in last year’s protests have been conducted in secrecy and in the absence of even the most basic level of legal oversight and due process. Last month Human Rights Watch revealed a judicial system so highly politicised as to preclude any possibility of fair trials for Tibetans.

URGENT ACTION: Please help stop the executions!
Send a letter to China’s Minister of Justice, Ms Wu Aiying, calling for an immediate stay of execution.