By IANS,
Dharamsala : The Tibetan government-in-exile Thursday criticised a Chinese court’s sentence on 30 Tibetans involved in anti-China protests last month.
“We strongly condemn the arbitrary sentences. The penalty imposed on the 30 Tibetans range from three years to life imprisonment for merely exercising their freedom of expression,” a spokesman of the Tibetan-government-in-exile here said.
“This verdict is disproportionate to what the Chinese authorities say the ‘crimes’ are. These trials were not fair and transparent and the accused were even denied independent lawyers,” he said.
“We fear that many such arbitrary trials will follow to lock up all those Tibetans presently under detention.”
“We urge the Chinese government to do away with this pretence of a fair trial and release at once all detained Tibetans.”
Anti-China protests broke out in Tibet March 10 and according to the Tibetan government-in-exile based here at least 203 people (Tibetans) have been killed.
China, however, puts the figure much lower.